Metagenomic shotgun sequencing (MSS) is an important tool for characterizing viral populations. It is culture independent, requires no a priori knowledge of the viruses in the sample, and may provide ...useful genomic information. However, MSS can lack sensitivity and may yield insufficient data for detailed analysis. We have created a targeted sequence capture panel, ViroCap, designed to enrich nucleic acid from DNA and RNA viruses from 34 families that infect vertebrate hosts. A computational approach condensed ∼1 billion bp of viral reference sequence into <200 million bp of unique, representative sequence suitable for targeted sequence capture. We compared the effectiveness of detecting viruses in standard MSS versus MSS following targeted sequence capture. First, we analyzed two sets of samples, one derived from samples submitted to a diagnostic virology laboratory and one derived from samples collected in a study of fever in children. We detected 14 and 18 viruses in the two sets, comprising 19 genera from 10 families, with dramatic enhancement of genome representation following capture enrichment. The median fold-increases in percentage viral reads post-capture were 674 and 296. Median breadth of coverage increased from 2.1% to 83.2% post-capture in the first set and from 2.0% to 75.6% in the second set. Next, we analyzed samples containing a set of diverse anellovirus sequences and demonstrated that ViroCap could be used to detect viral sequences with up to 58% variation from the references used to select capture probes. ViroCap substantially enhances MSS for a comprehensive set of viruses and has utility for research and clinical applications.
The vaginal eukaryotic DNA virome and preterm birth Wylie, Kristine M.; Wylie, Todd N.; Cahill, Alison G. ...
American journal of obstetrics and gynecology,
08/2018, Letnik:
219, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Despite decades of attempts to link infectious agents to preterm birth, an exact causative microbe or community of microbes remains elusive. Culture-independent sequencing of vaginal bacterial ...communities demonstrates community characteristics are associated with preterm birth, although none are specific enough to apply clinically. Viruses are important components of the vaginal microbiome and have dynamic relationships with vaginal bacterial communities. We hypothesized that vaginal eukaryotic DNA viral communities (the “vaginal virome”) either alone or in the context of bacterial communities are associated with preterm birth.
The objective of this study was to use high-throughput sequencing to examine the vaginal eukaryotic DNA virome in a cohort of pregnant women and examine associations between vaginal community characteristics and preterm birth.
This is a nested case-control study within a prospective cohort study of women with singleton pregnancies, not on supplemental progesterone, and without cervical cerclage in situ. Serial midvaginal swabs were obtained at routine prenatal visits. DNA was extracted, bacterial communities were characterized by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing, and eukaryotic viral communities were characterized by enrichment of viral nucleic acid with the ViroCap targeted sequence capture panel followed by nucleic acid sequencing. Viral communities were analyzed according to presence/absence of viruses, diversity, dynamics over time, and association with bacterial community data obtained from the same specimens.
Sixty subjects contributed 128 vaginal swabs longitudinally across pregnancy. In all, 24 patients delivered preterm. Participants were predominantly African American (65%). Six families of eukaryotic DNA viruses were detected in the vaginal samples. At least 1 virus was detected in 80% of women. No specific virus or group of viruses was associated with preterm delivery. Higher viral richness was significantly associated with preterm delivery in the full group and in the African American subgroup (P = .0005 and P = .0003, respectively). Having both high bacterial diversity and high viral diversity in the first trimester was associated with the highest risk for preterm birth.
Higher vaginal viral diversity is associated with preterm birth. Changes in vaginal virome diversity appear similar to changes in the vaginal bacterial microbiome over pregnancy, suggesting that underlying physiology of pregnancy may regulate both bacterial and viral communities.
Metagenomic shotgun sequencing (MSS) is a revolutionary approach to viral diagnostic testing that allows simultaneous detection of a broad range of viruses, detailed taxonomic assignment, and ...detection of mutations associated with antiviral drug resistance. To enhance sensitivity for virus detection, we previously developed ViroCap, a targeted sequence capture panel designed to enrich nucleic acid from a comprehensive set of eukaryotic viruses prior to sequencing. To demonstrate the utility of MSS with targeted sequence capture for detecting clinically important viruses and characterizing clinically important viral features, we used ViroCap to analyze clinical samples from a diagnostic virology laboratory containing a broad range of medically relevant viruses. From 26 samples, MSS with ViroCap detected all of the expected viruses and 30 additional viruses. Comparing sequencing after capture enrichment with standard MSS, we detected 13 viruses only with capture enrichment and observed a consistent increase in the number and percentage of viral sequence reads as well as the breadth and depth of coverage of the viral genomes. Compared with clinical testing, MSS enhanced taxonomic assignment for 15 viruses, and codons associated with antiviral drug resistance in influenza A virus, herpes simplex virus (HSV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) could be analyzed. Overall, in clinical samples, MSS with targeted sequence capture provides enhanced virus detection and information of clinical and epidemiologic relevance compared with clinical testing and MSS without targeted sequence capture.
We have developed and evaluated a real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assay for the detection of human enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in clinical specimens. This assay was developed in response to ...the unprecedented 2014 nationwide EV-D68 outbreak in the United States associated with severe respiratory illness. As part of our evaluation of the outbreak, we sequenced and published the genome sequence of the EV-D68 virus circulating in St. Louis, MO. This sequence, along with other GenBank sequences from past EV-D68 occurrences, was used to computationally select a region of EV-D68 appropriate for targeting in a strain-specific RT-PCR assay. The RT-PCR assay amplifies a segment of the VP1 gene, with an analytic limit of detection of 4 copies per reaction, and it was more sensitive than commercially available assays that detect enteroviruses and rhinoviruses without distinguishing between the two, including three multiplex respiratory panels approved for clinical use by the FDA. The assay did not detect any other enteroviruses or rhinoviruses tested and did detect divergent strains of EV-D68, including the first EV-D68 strain (Fermon) identified in California in 1962. This assay should be useful for identifying and studying current and future outbreaks of EV-D68 viruses.
The complete genome of a novel coronavirus was sequenced directly from the cloacal swab of a Canada goose that perished in a die-off of Canada and Snow geese in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada. ...Comparative genomics and phylogenetic analysis indicate it is a new species of Gammacoronavirus, as it falls below the threshold of 90% amino acid similarity in the protein domains used to demarcate Coronaviridae. Additional features that distinguish the genome of Canada goose coronavirus include 6 novel ORFs, a partial duplication of the 4 gene and a presumptive change in the proteolytic processing of polyproteins 1a and 1ab.
Chronic villitis of unknown etiology (VUE) is a chronic inflammatory lesion of third trimester placenta, which contributes to major adverse obstetric outcomes. However, the inciting factors and ...mechanisms by which VUE contributes to adverse outcomes are poorly understood. This limits our ability to develop preventions or interventions. Our goals were to determine whether viruses can be detected in placental tissues with VUE and to determine whether gene expression profiles support an antiviral response.
We extracted RNA and DNA from 20 placentas with high-grade chronic villitis and 20 control placentas without inflammation. Viruses were assessed using ViroCap viral nucleic acid enrichment coupled with metagenomic sequencing. RNA sequencing was used to evaluate the inflammatory gene expression profiles in each placenta.
We detected at least 1 virus in 50% of the samples tested. We found that herpesviruses, were found more frequently in cases compared with controls (P = 0.01). Antiviral pathways, including defense response to virus, interferon gamma response, and IFN alpha/beta response, were upregulated in cases. We observed two clusters of gene expression profiles in the VUE cases, suggesting multiple inflammatory profiles are associated with VUE.
These data support a viral etiology for some cases of VUE. Furthermore, gene expression profiles suggest the possibility of more than one cause or manifestation of VUE. Viral mechanisms should be explored as potential targets for prevention or intervention in VUE.
•Chronic villitis of unknown etiology (VUE) contributes to adverse pregnancy outcomes, but mechanisms are poorly understood.•Human herpesviruses are detected more common among VUE cases.•Antiviral pathways are upregulated in VUE cases compared to controls.
Massively parallel sequencing technologies hold incredible promise for the study of DNA sequence variation, particularly the identification of variants affecting human disease. The unprecedented ...throughput and relatively short read lengths of Roche/454, Illumina/Solexa, and other platforms have spurred development of a new generation of sequence alignment algorithms. Yet detection of sequence variants based on short read alignments remains challenging, and most currently available tools are limited to a single platform or aligner type. We present VarScan, an open source tool for variant detection that is compatible with several short read aligners. We demonstrate VarScan's ability to detect SNPs and indels with high sensitivity and specificity, in both Roche/454 sequencing of individuals and deep Illumina/Solexa sequencing of pooled samples. Availability and Implementation: Source code and documentation freely available at http://genome.wustl.edu/tools/cancer-genomics implemented as a Perl package and supported on Linux/UNIX, MS Windows and Mac OSX. Contact: dkoboldt@genome.wustl.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Kawasaki Disease (KD) can cause potentially life-threatening coronary arteritis in young children, and has a likely infectious etiology. Transcriptome profiling is a powerful approach to investigate ...gene expression in diseased tissues. RNA sequencing of KD coronary arteries could elucidate the etiology and the host response, with the potential to improve KD diagnosis and/or treatment.
Deep RNA sequencing was performed on KD (n = 8) and childhood control (n = 7) coronary artery tissues, revealing 1074 differentially expressed mRNAs. Non-human RNA sequences were subjected to a microbial discovery bioinformatics platform, and microbial sequences were analyzed by Metastats for association with KD.
T lymphocyte activation, antigen presentation, immunoglobulin production, and type I interferon response were significantly upregulated in KD arteritis, while the tumor necrosis factor α pathway was not differentially expressed. Transcripts from known infectious agents were not specifically associated with KD coronary arteritis.
The immune transcriptional profile in KD coronary artery tissues has features of an antiviral immune response such as activated cytotoxic T lymphocyte and type I interferon-induced gene upregulation. These results provide new insights into the pathogenesis of KD arteritis that can guide selection of new immunomodulatory therapies for high-risk KD patients, and provide direction for future etiologic studies.
ViroMatch is an automated pipeline that takes metagenomic sequencing reads as input and performs iterative nucleotide and translated nucleotide mapping to identify viral sequences. We provide a ...Docker image for ViroMatch, so that users will not have to install dependencies.
•A comprehensive high-throughput viral sequencing strategy (ViroCap) was adapted for use with feline tumors.•Papillomavirus was not commonly associated with feline oral squamous cell ...carcinoma.•Feline oral squamous cell carcinoma is a good model for HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in people.•The virome of FOSCC and normal feline oral mucosa included feline foamy virus, torque teno virus, herpes and papillomavirus, FIV and EBV.•Co-occurrence of Epstein Barr Virus and feline papillomavirus-3 was found found in a feline oral squamous cell carcinoma sample.
Feline oral squamous cell carcinoma (FOSCC) may be the best naturally-occurring model of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). HNSCC can be broadly divided into human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative cancers and HPV-positive cancers where HPV is the causative agent. Previous studies in FOSCC have used both species-specific and species-nonspecific PCR primers that may be insensitive to the detection of PVs and other viruses that may be divergent from known sequences. ViroCap is a targeted capture and next generation sequencing tool that was designed to identify all known vertebrate DNA and RNA viruses. In this study we used a metagenomic approach using ViroCap for DNA viruses in 20 FOSCC, 9 normal feline oral mucosal, and 8 suspected PV positive control samples. We tested the hypothesis that viruses would be enriched in FOSCC compared to normal oral mucosa. The virome of the FOSCC and normal feline oral mucosa consisted of feline foamy virus in 7/20 and 2/9 (35% and 22%), feline torque teno virus in 2/20 and 0/9 (10% and 0%), alphaherpesvirus in 2/10 and 0/9 (10% and 0%), FIV (0% and 22%), Epstein-Barr virus in 1/20 and 0/9 (5% and 0%) and feline papillomavirus in 1/20 and 0/9 samples (5% and 0% respectively). Felis catus papillomavirus-3 was found in 1 of 20 FOSCC samples. A virus was not associated consistently with FOSCC. If PVs have a role in FOSCC it is at most a supplementary or uncommon role. FOSCC appears most closely related to HPV-negative HNSCC. Future research on FOSCC should focus on identifying genetic and environmental causes.