WOODCHUCK VIRUS--MOLECULAR BIOLOGICAL STUDIES

土拨鼠肝炎病毒(WHV)在分类学和血清学上是 与乙肝病毒(乙肝病毒)有关。感染其中的每一种 病毒与急慢性肝炎和肝细胞有关 它们各自宿主中的癌症和这些关联似乎是 本质上是病因性的。因此，土拨鼠感染WHV提供了一种 了解人类乙肝病毒感染的相关和方便的模型。 今年进行了五个主要领域的研究。首先，我们继续 我们对WHV X基因的研究发现，这个基因非常 对变化敏感，对于动物体内的病毒复制是必不可少的 转基因实验。第二，X成绩单的精细映射 启动子用于鉴定该顺式启动子中的必需核苷酸。 表演元素。第三，我们将之前的实验扩展到 WHV双向启动子的特性研究。四、进步 是为了鉴定一种蒙古旱獭肝炎病毒。 第五，两个WHV分离株被证明发生表面抗原血症和 肝脏肿瘤的发病率有显著差异。后一项发现有 对理解分子机制的重要意义 参与病毒复制和致癌潜能的研究 庚型核糖核酸病毒。因此，现在可以设计实验来 了解庚型核糖核酸病毒致癌机制。

The woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) is taxonomically and serologically related to the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Infection with each of these viruses is associated with acute and chronic hepatitis and hepatic cell carcinoma in their respective hosts and these associations appear to be etiological in nature. Thus, WHV infection of woodchucks provides a relevant and convenient model for understanding HBV infections of humans. Five major areas of study were pursued this year. First, we continued our investigations of the WHV X gene and found that this gene is very sensitive to alterations and is essential for viral replication in animal transfection experiments. Second, fine mapping of the X transcript promoter was used to identify the essential nucleotides in this cis- acting element. Third, we extended our previous experiments on the characterization of the bi-directional promoter of WHV. Fourth, progress was made in an attempt to identify a Mongolian marmot hepatitis virus. Fifth, two WHV isolates were shown to develop surface antigenemia and liver tumors at significantly different rates. The latter finding has important implications for understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in viral replication and in the oncogenic potential of hepadnaviruses. Thus, it is now possible to design experiments to understand the mechanism of hepadnavirus oncogenesis.