Producing HBV mutants

[kpf at bones.biochem.ualberta.ca]

Greetings,

We have a student coming to the lab this summer who will be attempting to
select for a duck hepatitis B virus mutant which exhibits resistance to a
cytidine analogue. The project is to involve culture of primary hepatocytes
from animals congenitally infected with DHBV in the presence of the analogue in
the hopes that a resistant strain will "break through". My personal feeling is
that this may be facilitated by  adding a mutagenic agent (such as EMS or MNNG)
during the first few days of culture followed by continued culture in the
presence of the analogue. 

Any suggestions as to the validity (or stupidity ;-)) of this approach would be
greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Karl Fischer
Dept. of Medical Microbiology
University of Alberta
Canada