Assembly-free single-molecule sequencing recovers complete virus genomes from natural microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth and play key roles in host ecology, evolution, and horizontal gene transfer. Despite recent progress in viral metagenomics, the inherent genetic complexity of virus populations still poses technical difficulties for recovering complete virus genomes from natural assemblages. To address these challenges, we developed an assembly-free, single-molecule nanopore sequencing approach, enabling direct recovery of complete virus genome sequences from environmental samples. Our method yielded thousands of full-length, high-quality draft virus genome sequences that were not recovered using standard short-read assembly approaches. Additionally, our analyses discriminated between populations whose genomes had identical direct terminal repeats

SUBMITTER: Beaulaurier J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7111524 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature