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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Phylodynamics of hepatitis B virus genotype B in East Asia: A population genomics analysis

Serena Y. C. Lin1* ,  Patrick C. Y. Woo2,3
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1 Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taipei 106, Taiwan
2 Doctoral Program in Translational Medicine and Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
3 The iEGG and Animal Biotechnology Research Center, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
JBM null , 0(0), e99010048; https://doi.org/14440/jbm.2025.0084
Submitted: 12 September 2024 | Revised: 28 November 2024 | Accepted: 10 December 2024 | Published: 17 January 2025
© by the Journal of Biological Methods published by POL Scientific. Licensee POL Scientific, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype B (HBV/B) is the predominant strain in Taiwan and several East Asian countries. Objective: The aim of this study is to use comprehensive phylogenetic analysis tools to monitor the long-term molecular evolution dynamic of HBV genotype B population in East Asia. Methods: In this study, full genome sequences of HBV with temporal information were extracted from GenBank and analyzed using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method to identify best-fitting coalescent models. Results: Bayesian Skygrid analysis revealed a viral effective population (phylodynamic) bottleneck for HBV/B in 2003, a pattern similar to the previously described HBV genotype C (HBV/C). Despite these similarities, the viral dynamics for HBV/B and HBV/C diverged after 2005. HBV/C exhibited a marked decrease in genetic diversity across East Asia, whereas HBV/B maintained stable genetic diversity after 2005. Phylogeographic analysis using Neighbor-Joining and Bayesian maximum clade credibility trees indicated that Taiwan was likely the geographic origin of the most recent common ancestor of HBV/B in East Asia. An early clade spread to Japan and subsequently to the West Coast of the United States of America. Another clade dispersed to China, spread widely across the region, and was reintroduced to Taiwan multiple times. In contrast, HBV/C likely originated in China and spread to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan over several decades. Conclusion: This study highlights the similarities and differences between the viral dynamics and geographical evolutionary pathways between HBV/B and HBV/C.

Keywords
HBV genotype B
Phylogeography
Most recent common ancestor
Bottleneck
East Asia
Funding
This work was supported by the Feature Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE-113-S- 0023-A) in Taiwan.
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Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Journal of Biological Methods, Electronic ISSN: 2326-9901 Print ISSN: TBA, Published by POL Scientific
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