Hepatitis C virus whole genome position weight matrix and robust primer design.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The high degree of sequence heterogeneity found in Hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates, makes robust nucleic acid-based assays difficult to generate. Polymerase chain reaction based techniques, require efficient and specific sequence recognition. Generation of robust primers capable of recognizing a wide range of isolates is a difficult task. RESULTS:A position weight matrix (PWM) and a consensus sequence were built for each region of HCV and subsequently assembled into a whole genome consensus sequence and PWM. For each of the 10 regions, the number of occurrences of each base at a given position was compiled. These counts were converted to frequencies that were used to calculate log odds scores. Using over 100 complete and 14,000 partial HCV genomes from GenBank, a consensus HCV genome sequence was generated along with a PWM reflecting heterogeneity at each position. The PWM was used to identify the most conserved regions for primer design. CONCLUSIONS:This approach allows rapid identification of conserved regions for robust primer design and is broadly applicable to sets of genomes with all levels of genetic heterogeneity.

SUBMITTER: Qiu P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC130017 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature