Genotype E: The neglected genotype of hepatitis B virus

Figure 1 Organizational structure of hepatitis B virus genotype E genome. The hepatitis B virus genome consists of a partially double stranded DNA with the complete minus strand and the incomplete strand. The four open reading frames are shown: precore/core (preC/C) that encodes the e antigen (HBeAg) and core protein (HBcAg); POL for polymerase (reverse transcriptase), preS1/preS2/S for surface proteins (three forms of HBsAg, small, middle and large) and X for a transcriptional trans-activator protein. The promoters, enhancers and the unique restriction enzymes are shown.