Figure 1.

Conserved residues within the putative CD81 binding domains of E2. HCV strains from the Los Alamos HCV sequence database were aligned. Three regions previously implicated in CD81 binding were analyzed. Amino acids are numbered relative to the AUG start codon of the H77 strain shown and used in this study. The hyperconserved (black rectangles) targeted (asterisk) residues for alanine substitution are indicated.