Evolutionary selection associated with the multi-function of overlapping genes in the hepatitis B virus

It is a challenge to understand the discrete roles of each point mutation in viral evolution, but overlapping genes provide an excellent entrance for the investigation of this complicated process. We obtained 132 sequences from the largest overlapping region in the HBV genome. Based on the genetic divergence between genotypes B and C, we distinguished a set of related footprint mutations that are believed to be responsible for historical selection events. Examining the mutations in the functional domains, we found that the virus has adopted a coherent strategy in its evolutionary process that can be summarized as follows: (1) the distribution of mutations was non-random throughout the overlapping region, and more mutations were preserved in the sequence when one of the genes was under relaxed selection; (2) the viral domains were subject to different selective pressures; for instance, the PreS1 domain underwent a strict selection, whereas the overlapped Spacer domain was relatively relaxed with obvious tolerance of non-synonymous mutations with a high dN/dS ratio; (3) different selective pressures on two codon sites ultimately determined that every mutation persevered at a proper position. Taken together, the functional constraints of protein domains are believed to be primarily responsible for the different selection patterns exhibited by the distribution of mutations and amino acid changes in the region where overlapping genes reside.