Rapid hepatitis C virus divergence among chronically infected 1 individuals 2 3

Here, we analyze the viral divergence among HCV chronic cases infected with genotype 25 1. The intrahost viral evolution was assessed by deep sequencing using the 454 Genome 26 Sequencer platform. The results showed a rapid nucleotide sequence divergence. This notorious 27 short-term viral evolution is of the utmost importance for the study of HCV transmission because 28 direct links between related samples were virtually lost. Thus, rapid divergence of HCV 29 significantly affect genetic relatedness studies and outbreak investigations. 30