Objective(s):To evaluate nanopore DNA sequencing for sequencing full-length HIV-1 provirus.Design: I used nanopore sequencing to sequence full-length HIV-1 from a plasmid (pHXB2).Methods: pHXB2 plasmid was processed with the Rapid PCR-Barcoding library kit and sequenced on the MinION sequencer (Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Oxford., UK). Raw fast5 reads were converted into fastq (base called) with Albacore, Guppy, and FlipFlop base callers. Reads were first aligned to the reference with BWA-MEM to evaluate sample coverage manually. Reads were then assembled with Canu into contigs, and contigs manually finished in SnapGene.Results: I sequenced full-length HXB2 HIV-1 from 5' to 3' LTR (100%), with median perbase coverage of over 9000x in one 12-barcoded experiment on a single MinION flow cell.The longest HIV-spanning read to-date was generated, at a length of 11,487 bases, which included full-length HIV-1 and plasmid backbone on either side. At least 20 variants were discovered in pHXB2 compared to reference. Conclusions:The MinION sequencer performed as-expected, covering full-length HIV. The discovery of variants in a dogmatic reference plasmid demonstrates the need for singlemolecule sequence verification moving forward. These results illustrate the utility of long read sequencing to advance the study of HIV at single integration site resolution.

Conflict(s) of interest:ARG received travel bursaries from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), Oxford, UK.The present work was completed independently of ONT. JTK declares no conflict of interest.ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate native RNA sequencing for sequencing HIV-1 viral genomes. Methods:Fifteen HIV-1 strains were processed with Direct RNA Sequencing (SQK-RNA002) library kits and sequenced on MinION Mk1B devices with RevD flow cells (Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), Oxford, UK). Raw reads were converted to FASTQ, aligned to reference sequences, and assembled into contigs. Multi-sequence alignments of the contigs were generated and used for cladistics analysis. Results:We sequenced full-length HIV-1 from the transcriptional start site to 3' LTR (100% virion genome) in 3 out of 15 isolates (89.6, NLAD8, AD17), achieving majority coverage (defined as > 50%) in another 7 out of 15 isolates. Inspection of NLAD8 sequence alignments revealed splicing or deletion signatures. Despite the strong 3' bias, read coverage was sufficient to evaluate single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), insertions and deletions in 9 isolates, and to assemble HIV-1 genomes directly from viral RNA, achieving a maximum of 94% assembly coverage for NLAD8. Phylogenetic relationships were maintained at the level of contigs, as well as individual reads. Conclusions: ONT native RNA sequencing performed as expected, covering full-length HIV-1 RNA without PCR or cDNA sequencing. Native single-molecule RNA sequencing supported previous models of HIV-1 replication, and samples exhibited strain-specific transcriptional signals. We propose Context Dependency Variant Classification to describe variants occurring in information-dense regions of HIV. These data provide rich resources for emerging RNA modification detection schemes. Future work will expand HIV-1 transcript profiling to infection models and clinical samples.Recently, we used long read PCR + DNA sequencing of synthetic plasmid-bound provirus to observe the entire HIV-1 DNA genome for the first time [3]. In addition to covering the HIV-1 reference sequence HXB2 deeply and evenly, and recovering at least one full-length read, we were able to observe 20 SNVs, half of which were in repetitive Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) regions. However, DNA-based sequencing methods cannot differentiate between reads from infectious virion RNA, integrated proviral DNA, and non-integrated forms [4]. Direct sequencing of the entire HIV-1 viral RNA genome with one full-length read of native virion-associated RNA has yet to be described. A barrier to full-coverage HIV-1 reads has been limitations in lengths of extracted nucleic acids from samples (Gener, unpublished). Additionally, HIV-1 exhibits complicated splicing behavior which may be virus- [5] and host cell-dependent [6]. The observation of alternative splicing of viral mRNAs [5] is coverage-dependent, often forcing investigators into using PCR to amplify signal at the expense of per-base accuracy. PCR also biases the signal that can be observed. The Oxford Nano...

Objective: To compare long-read nanopore DNA sequencing (DNA-seq) with short-read sequencing-by-synthesis for sequencing a full-length (e.g., non-deletion, nor reporter) HIV-1 model provirus in plasmid pHXB2_D. Design: We sequenced pHXB2_D and a control plasmid pNL4-3_gag-pol(Δ1443-4553)_EGFP with long- and short-read DNA-seq, evaluating sample variability with resequencing (sequencing and mapping to reference HXB2) and de novo viral genome assembly. Methods: We prepared pHXB2_D and pNL4-3_gag-pol(Δ1443-4553)_EGFP for long-read nanopore DNA-seq, varying DNA polymerases Taq (Sigma-Aldrich) and Long Amplicon (LA) Taq (Takara). Nanopore basecallers were compared. After aligning reads to the reference HXB2 to evaluate sample coverage, we looked for variants. We next assembled reads into contigs, followed by finishing and polishing. We hired an external core to sequence-verify pHXB2_D and pNL4-3_gag-pol(Δ1443-4553)_EGFP with single-end 150 base-long Illumina reads, after masking sample identity. Results: We achieved full-coverage (100%) of HXB2 HIV-1 from 5' to 3' long terminal repeats (LTRs), with median per-base coverage of over 9000x in one experiment on a single MinION flow cell. The longest HIV-spanning read to-date was generated, at a length of 11,487 bases, which included full-length HIV-1 and plasmid backbone with flanking host sequences supporting a single HXB2 integration event. We discovered 20 single nucleotide variants in pHXB2_D compared to reference, verified by short-read DNA sequencing. There were no variants detected in the HIV-1 segments of pNL4-3_gag-pol(Δ1443-4553)_EGFP. Conclusions: Nanopore sequencing performed as-expected, phasing LTRs, and even covering full-length HIV. The discovery of variants in a reference plasmid demonstrates the need for sequence verification moving forward, in line with calls from funding agencies for reagent verification. These results illustrate the utility of long-read DNA-seq to advance the study of HIV at single integration site resolution.

In October 2020, 62 scientists from nine nations worked together remotely in the Second Baylor College of Medicine & DNAnexus hackathon, focusing on different related topics on Structural Variation, Pan-genomes, and SARS-CoV-2 related research.   The overarching focus was to assess the current status of the field and identify the remaining challenges. Furthermore, how to combine the strengths of the different interests to drive research and method development forward. Over the four days, eight groups each designed and developed new open-source methods to improve the identification and analysis of variations among species, including humans and SARS-CoV-2. These included improvements in SV calling, genotyping, annotations and filtering. Together with advancements in benchmarking existing methods. Furthermore, groups focused on the diversity of SARS-CoV-2. Daily discussion summary and methods are available publicly at https://github.com/collaborativebioinformatics provides valuable insights for both participants and the research community.

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