Hepatitis B virus pre-S/S variants in liver diseases

Figure 1 Genome structure and organization of hepatitis B virus. The relaxed-circular DNA genome of HBV with a complete minus strand and incomplete plus strand is shown (inner circle), along with the four main open reading frames (ORFs): pre-S/S; precore/core (pC/C); Pol, including four domains: TP, SP, reverse transcriptase (RT), and RNase H (RH); and X. The minus (-) and plus (+) DNA strands are marked. The HBV Pol and capped mRNA oligomer at the 5' end of the (-) and (+) strands as well as the DR-1 and DR-2 are illustrated. The space between the DR-1 and DR-2 is the "cohesive overlap region." The (+) strand is typically incomplete.