Abstract
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the causative agent of hepatitis E. It is a nonenveloped
virus with a ∼7.2 kilobases positive-stranded RNA genome. The molecular virology of
HEV is getting better understood with the development of replicons and in vitro infection
systems, and the discovery of related viruses that infect animal species other than
humans. This review focuses on the virology of HEV and updates the current knowledge
on the HEV genome and its constituent proteins—ORF1, ORF2, and ORF3, and the viral
life cycle.
Keywords
hepatitis E - HEV - ORF1 - ORF2 - ORF3 - RNA replication