Low-bias RNA sequencing of the HIV-2 genome from blood plasma
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Accurate determination of the genetic diversity present in the HIV quasispecies is critical for the development of a preventative vaccine: in particular, little is known about viral genetic diversity for the second type of HIV, HIV-2. A better understanding of HIV-2 biology is relevant to the HIV vaccine field because a substantial proportion of infected people experience long-term viral control, and prior HIV-2 infection has been associated with slower HIV-1 disease progression in coinfected subjects. The majority of traditional and next-generation sequencing methods have relied on target amplification prior to sequencing, introducing biases that may obscure the true signals of diversity in the viral population. Additionally, target enrichment through PCR requires a priori sequence knowledge, which is lacking for HIV-2. Therefore, a target enrichment free method of library preparation would be valuable for the field. We applied an RNA shotgun sequencing (RNA-Seq) method without PCR amplification to cultured viral stocks and patient plasma samples from HIV-2-infected individuals. Libraries generated from total plasma RNA were analyzed with a two-step pipeline: (i) de novo genome assembly, followed by (ii) read remapping. By this approach, whole-genome sequences were generated with a 28× to 67× mean depth of coverage. Assembled reads showed a low level of GC bias, and comparison of the genome diversities at the intrahost level showed low diversity in the accessory gene vpx in all patients. Our study demonstrates that RNA-Seq is a feasible full-genome de novo sequencing method for blood plasma samples collected from HIV-2-infected individuals.
Date Issued
2019-01-01
Date Acceptance
2018-09-14
Citation
Journal of Virology, 2019, 93 (1)
ISSN
1098-5514
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Virology
Volume
93
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2018 James et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Sponsor
Medical Research Council
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30333167
PII: JVI.00677-18
Grant Number
G0701313
Subjects
HIV-2
RNA sequencing
next-generation sequencing
vpx
whole genome
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
e00677-18
Date Publish Online
2018-12-10