[Identification of hepatitis B virus intergenotype recombination in Chinese patients].

Objective: To identify the intergenotype recombination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in Chinese patients and explore new recombination types of HBV.
Methods: Complete genome sequences of HBV from Chinese patients were downloaded from GenBank and analyzed by Fragment-typing method to screen the potential recombinants, and the breakpoints of recombination were identified by using Simplot program.
Results: Thirty-one recombination types including 755 recombinants were identified from 1642 complete HBV genome sequences, including 22 B/C recombination types with 676 recombinants, 5 C/D recombination types with 75 recombinants, 3 A/C recombination types with 3 recombinants, and 1 C/I recombination type with 1 recombinant.
Conclusion: Of the 31 recombination types comprising 755 recombinants, 4 are novel recombination types found for the first time. All these recombination types identified in this study involve genotype C.