Patent ID: 8846891

Claim:
A recombinant nucleic acid comprising an infectious inter-genotypic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genome encoding the structural genes, Core, E1, E2, the p7 gene, and the NS2 gene of genotype 1a, wherein the E1 and/or E2 gene(s) comprise adaptive mutations corresponding to amino acid replacements H261R and Q444R with reference to SEQ ID NO: 1 or corresponding to amino acid replacements N476D and S733F with reference to SEQ ID NO:1 that improve infectivity of the HCV genome, and the non-structural genes NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A and NS5B from the human hepatitis C virus genotype 2a strain JFH1, and wherein 26 or 27 N-terminal amino acids of the encoded E2 gene that comprise the Hypervariable Region 1 (HVR1) of E2 are deleted.