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Sinclair P, Zhao L, Beggs CB, Illingworth CJR. The airborne transmission of viruses causes tight transmission bottlenecks. Nat Commun 2024; 15:3540. [PMID: 38670957 PMCID: PMC11053022 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47923-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The transmission bottleneck describes the number of viral particles that initiate an infection in a new host. Previous studies have used genome sequence data to suggest that transmission bottlenecks for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 involve few viral particles, but the general principles of virus transmission are not fully understood. Here we show that, across a broad range of circumstances, tight transmission bottlenecks are a simple consequence of the physical process of airborne viral transmission. We use mathematical modelling to describe the physical process of the emission and inhalation of infectious particles, deriving the result that that the great majority of transmission bottlenecks involve few viral particles. While exceptions to this rule exist, the circumstances needed to create these exceptions are likely very rare. We thus provide a physical explanation for previous inferences of bottleneck size, while predicting that tight transmission bottlenecks prevail more generally in respiratory virus transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Sinclair
- MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, UK
| | - Lei Zhao
- Section for GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Clive B Beggs
- Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
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2
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Markov PV, Ghafari M, Beer M, Lythgoe K, Simmonds P, Stilianakis NI, Katzourakis A. The evolution of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Rev Microbiol 2023; 21:361-379. [PMID: 37020110 DOI: 10.1038/s41579-023-00878-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 263] [Impact Index Per Article: 263.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 04/07/2023]
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused millions of deaths and substantial morbidity worldwide. Intense scientific effort to understand the biology of SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in daunting numbers of genomic sequences. We witnessed evolutionary events that could mostly be inferred indirectly before, such as the emergence of variants with distinct phenotypes, for example transmissibility, severity and immune evasion. This Review explores the mechanisms that generate genetic variation in SARS-CoV-2, underlying the within-host and population-level processes that underpin these events. We examine the selective forces that likely drove the evolution of higher transmissibility and, in some cases, higher severity during the first year of the pandemic and the role of antigenic evolution during the second and third years, together with the implications of immune escape and reinfections, and the increasing evidence for and potential relevance of recombination. In order to understand how major lineages, such as variants of concern (VOCs), are generated, we contrast the evidence for the chronic infection model underlying the emergence of VOCs with the possibility of an animal reservoir playing a role in SARS-CoV-2 evolution, and conclude that the former is more likely. We evaluate uncertainties and outline scenarios for the possible future evolutionary trajectories of SARS-CoV-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter V Markov
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy.
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London, London, UK.
| | - Mahan Ghafari
- Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Martin Beer
- Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Insel Riems, Germany
| | | | - Peter Simmonds
- Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Nikolaos I Stilianakis
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy
- Department of Biometry and Epidemiology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
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3
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Amato KA, Haddock LA, Braun KM, Meliopoulos V, Livingston B, Honce R, Schaack GA, Boehm E, Higgins CA, Barry GL, Koelle K, Schultz-Cherry S, Friedrich TC, Mehle A. Influenza A virus undergoes compartmentalized replication in vivo dominated by stochastic bottlenecks. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3416. [PMID: 35701424 PMCID: PMC9197827 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31147-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Transmission of influenza A viruses (IAV) between hosts is subject to numerous physical and biological barriers that impose genetic bottlenecks, constraining viral diversity and adaptation. The bottlenecks within hosts and their potential impacts on evolutionary pathways taken during infection are poorly understood. To address this, we created highly diverse IAV libraries bearing molecular barcodes on two gene segments, enabling high-resolution tracking and quantification of unique virus lineages within hosts. Here we show that IAV infection in lungs is characterized by multiple within-host bottlenecks that result in “islands” of infection in lung lobes, each with genetically distinct populations. We perform site-specific inoculation of barcoded IAV in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets and track viral diversity as infection spreads to the trachea and lungs. We detect extensive compartmentalization of discrete populations within lung lobes. Bottleneck events and localized replication stochastically sample individual viruses from the upper respiratory tract or the trachea that become the dominant genotype in a particular lobe. These populations are shaped strongly by founder effects, with limited evidence for positive selection. The segregated sites of replication highlight the jackpot-style events that contribute to within-host influenza virus evolution and may account for low rates of intrahost adaptation. Transmission of influenza A viruses (IAV) between hosts and replication within host impose genetic bottlenecks, constraining viral diversity and adaptation. Here, Amato et al. perform site-specific inoculation of barcoded IAV of ferrets and track viral diversity as infection spreads to the lower respiratory tract and conclude that narrow population bottlenecks are an important feature of the within-host infection dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine A Amato
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Luis A Haddock
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Katarina M Braun
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Victoria Meliopoulos
- Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, 38105, USA
| | - Brandi Livingston
- Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, 38105, USA
| | - Rebekah Honce
- Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, 38105, USA
| | - Grace A Schaack
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Emma Boehm
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Christina A Higgins
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Gabrielle L Barry
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
| | - Katia Koelle
- Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA
| | - Stacey Schultz-Cherry
- Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, 38105, USA
| | - Thomas C Friedrich
- Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.,Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53715, USA
| | - Andrew Mehle
- Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
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4
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Detecting Selection in the HIV-1 Genome during Sexual Transmission Events. Viruses 2022; 14:v14020406. [PMID: 35215999 PMCID: PMC8876189 DOI: 10.3390/v14020406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2021] [Revised: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Little is known about whether and how variation in the HIV-1 genome affects its transmissibility. Assessing which genomic features of HIV-1 are under positive or negative selection during transmission is challenging, because very few virus particles are typically transmitted, and random genetic drift can dilute genetic signals in the recipient virus population. We analyzed 30 transmitter–recipient pairs from the Zurich Primary HIV Infection Study and the Swiss HIV Cohort Study using near full-length HIV-1 genomes. We developed a new statistical test to detect selection during transmission, called Selection Test in Transmission (SeTesT), based on comparing the transmitter and recipient virus population and accounting for the transmission bottleneck. We performed extensive simulations and found that sensitivity of detecting selection during transmission is limited by the strong population bottleneck of few transmitted virions. When pooling individual test results across patients, we found two candidate HIV-1 genomic features for affecting transmission, namely amino acid positions 3 and 18 of Vpu, which were significant before but not after correction for multiple testing. In summary, SeTesT provides a general framework for detecting selection based on genomic sequencing data of transmitted viruses. Our study shows that a higher number of transmitter–recipient pairs is required to improve sensitivity of detecting selection.
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Gallego-García P, Varela N, Estévez-Gómez N, De Chiara L, Fernández-Silva I, Valverde D, Sapoval N, Treangen TJ, Regueiro B, Cabrera-Alvargonzález JJ, del Campo V, Pérez S, Posada D. OUP accepted manuscript. Virus Evol 2022; 8:veac008. [PMID: 35242361 PMCID: PMC8889950 DOI: 10.1093/ve/veac008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Revised: 12/21/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
A detailed understanding of how and when severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission occurs is crucial for designing effective prevention measures. Other than contact tracing, genome sequencing provides information to help infer who infected whom. However, the effectiveness of the genomic approach in this context depends on both (high enough) mutation and (low enough) transmission rates. Today, the level of resolution that we can obtain when describing SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks using just genomic information alone remains unclear. In order to answer this question, we sequenced forty-nine SARS-CoV-2 patient samples from ten local clusters in NW Spain for which partial epidemiological information was available and inferred transmission history using genomic variants. Importantly, we obtained high-quality genomic data, sequencing each sample twice and using unique barcodes to exclude cross-sample contamination. Phylogenetic and cluster analyses showed that consensus genomes were generally sufficient to discriminate among independent transmission clusters. However, levels of intrahost variation were low, which prevented in most cases the unambiguous identification of direct transmission events. After filtering out recurrent variants across clusters, the genomic data were generally compatible with the epidemiological information but did not support specific transmission events over possible alternatives. We estimated the effective transmission bottleneck size to be one to two viral particles for sample pairs whose donor–recipient relationship was likely. Our analyses suggest that intrahost genomic variation in SARS-CoV-2 might be generally limited and that homoplasy and recurrent errors complicate identifying shared intrahost variants. Reliable reconstruction of direct SARS-CoV-2 transmission based solely on genomic data seems hindered by a slow mutation rate, potential convergent events, and technical artifacts. Detailed contact tracing seems essential in most cases to study SARS-CoV-2 transmission at high resolution.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nair Varela
- CINBIO, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo 36310, Spain
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
| | - Nuria Estévez-Gómez
- CINBIO, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo 36310, Spain
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
| | - Loretta De Chiara
- CINBIO, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo 36310, Spain
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
| | - Iria Fernández-Silva
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Immunology, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo 36310, Spain
| | - Diana Valverde
- CINBIO, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo 36310, Spain
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Immunology, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo 36310, Spain
| | | | | | - Benito Regueiro
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
- Department of Microbiology, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Vigo (CHUVI), Sergas, Vigo 36213, Spain
- Microbiology and Parasitology Department, Medicine and Odontology, Universidade de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela 15782, Spain
| | - Jorge Julio Cabrera-Alvargonzález
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
- Department of Microbiology, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Vigo (CHUVI), Sergas, Vigo 36213, Spain
| | - Víctor del Campo
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), SERGAS-UVIGO
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Vigo (CHUVI), Sergas, Vigo 36213, Spain
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6
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Morris DH, Petrova VN, Rossine FW, Parker E, Grenfell BT, Neher RA, Levin SA, Russell CA. Asynchrony between virus diversity and antibody selection limits influenza virus evolution. eLife 2020; 9:e62105. [PMID: 33174838 PMCID: PMC7748417 DOI: 10.7554/elife.62105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Accepted: 11/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Seasonal influenza viruses create a persistent global disease burden by evolving to escape immunity induced by prior infections and vaccinations. New antigenic variants have a substantial selective advantage at the population level, but these variants are rarely selected within-host, even in previously immune individuals. Using a mathematical model, we show that the temporal asynchrony between within-host virus exponential growth and antibody-mediated selection could limit within-host antigenic evolution. If selection for new antigenic variants acts principally at the point of initial virus inoculation, where small virus populations encounter well-matched mucosal antibodies in previously-infected individuals, there can exist protection against reinfection that does not regularly produce observable new antigenic variants within individual infected hosts. Our results provide a theoretical explanation for how virus antigenic evolution can be highly selective at the global level but nearly neutral within-host. They also suggest new avenues for improving influenza control.
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MESH Headings
- Antibodies, Neutralizing/genetics
- Antibodies, Neutralizing/immunology
- Antibodies, Viral/immunology
- Biological Evolution
- Genetic Variation/genetics
- Humans
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/genetics
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/immunology
- Influenza A virus/genetics
- Influenza A virus/immunology
- Influenza, Human/immunology
- Influenza, Human/transmission
- Influenza, Human/virology
- Models, Statistical
- Selection, Genetic/genetics
- Selection, Genetic/immunology
- Virion/genetics
- Virion/immunology
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan H Morris
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton UniversityPrincetonUnited States
| | - Velislava N Petrova
- Department of Human Genetics, Wellcome Trust Sanger InstituteCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Fernando W Rossine
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton UniversityPrincetonUnited States
| | - Edyth Parker
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of AmsterdamAmsterdamNetherlands
| | - Bryan T Grenfell
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton UniversityPrincetonUnited States
- Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of HealthBethesdaUnited States
| | | | - Simon A Levin
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton UniversityPrincetonUnited States
| | - Colin A Russell
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, University of AmsterdamAmsterdamNetherlands
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Lumby CK, Zhao L, Breuer J, Illingworth CJR. A large effective population size for established within-host influenza virus infection. eLife 2020; 9:e56915. [PMID: 32773034 PMCID: PMC7431133 DOI: 10.7554/elife.56915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 07/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Strains of the influenza virus form coherent global populations, yet exist at the level of single infections in individual hosts. The relationship between these scales is a critical topic for understanding viral evolution. Here we investigate the within-host relationship between selection and the stochastic effects of genetic drift, estimating an effective population size of infection Ne for influenza infection. Examining whole-genome sequence data describing a chronic case of influenza B in a severely immunocompromised child we infer an Ne of 2.5 × 107 (95% confidence range 1.0 × 107 to 9.0 × 107) suggesting that genetic drift is of minimal importance during an established influenza infection. Our result, supported by data from influenza A infection, suggests that positive selection during within-host infection is primarily limited by the typically short period of infection. Atypically long infections may have a disproportionate influence upon global patterns of viral evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Casper K Lumby
- Department of Genetics, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Lei Zhao
- Department of Genetics, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Judith Breuer
- Great Ormond Street HospitalLondonUnited Kingdom
- Division of Infection and Immunity, University College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - Christopher JR Illingworth
- Department of Genetics, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
- Department of Computer Science, Institute of Biotechnology, University of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland
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8
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Inferring Transmission Bottleneck Size from Viral Sequence Data Using a Novel Haplotype Reconstruction Method. J Virol 2020; 94:JVI.00014-20. [PMID: 32295920 PMCID: PMC7307158 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00014-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 04/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Viral populations undergo a repeated cycle of within-host growth followed by transmission. Viral evolution is affected by each stage of this cycle. The number of viral particles transmitted from one host to another, known as the transmission bottleneck, is an important factor in determining how the evolutionary dynamics of the population play out, restricting the extent to which the evolved diversity of the population can be passed from one host to another. Previous study of viral sequence data has suggested that the transmission bottleneck size for influenza A transmission between human hosts is small. Reevaluating these data using a novel and improved method, we largely confirm this result, albeit that we infer a slightly higher bottleneck size in some cases, of between 1 and 13 virions. While a tight bottleneck operates in human influenza transmission, it is not extreme in nature; some diversity can be meaningfully retained between hosts. The transmission bottleneck is defined as the number of viral particles that transmit from one host to establish an infection in another. Genome sequence data have been used to evaluate the size of the transmission bottleneck between humans infected with the influenza virus; however, the methods used to make these estimates have some limitations. Specifically, viral allele frequencies, which form the basis of many calculations, may not fully capture a process which involves the transmission of entire viral genomes. Here, we set out a novel approach for inferring viral transmission bottlenecks; our method combines an algorithm for haplotype reconstruction with maximum likelihood methods for bottleneck inference. This approach allows for rapid calculation and performs well when applied to data from simulated transmission events; errors in the haplotype reconstruction step did not adversely affect inferences of the population bottleneck. Applied to data from a previous household transmission study of influenza A infection, we confirm the result that the majority of transmission events involve a small number of viruses, albeit with slightly looser bottlenecks being inferred, with between 1 and 13 particles transmitted in the majority of cases. While influenza A transmission involves a tight population bottleneck, the bottleneck is not so tight as to universally prevent the transmission of within-host viral diversity. IMPORTANCE Viral populations undergo a repeated cycle of within-host growth followed by transmission. Viral evolution is affected by each stage of this cycle. The number of viral particles transmitted from one host to another, known as the transmission bottleneck, is an important factor in determining how the evolutionary dynamics of the population play out, restricting the extent to which the evolved diversity of the population can be passed from one host to another. Previous study of viral sequence data has suggested that the transmission bottleneck size for influenza A transmission between human hosts is small. Reevaluating these data using a novel and improved method, we largely confirm this result, albeit that we infer a slightly higher bottleneck size in some cases, of between 1 and 13 virions. While a tight bottleneck operates in human influenza transmission, it is not extreme in nature; some diversity can be meaningfully retained between hosts.
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Abstract
Influenza viruses rapidly diversify within individual human infections. Several recent studies have deep-sequenced clinical influenza infections to identify viral variation within hosts, but it remains unclear how within-host mutations fare at the between-host scale. Here, we compare the genetic variation of H3N2 influenza within and between hosts to link viral evolutionary dynamics across scales. Synonymous sites evolve at similar rates at both scales, indicating that global evolution at these putatively neutral sites results from the accumulation of within-host variation. However, nonsynonymous mutations are depleted between hosts compared to within hosts, suggesting that selection purges many of the protein-altering changes that arise within hosts. The exception is at antigenic sites, where selection detectably favors nonsynonymous mutations at the global scale, but not within hosts. These results suggest that selection against deleterious mutations and selection for antigenic change are the main forces that act on within-host variants of influenza virus as they transmit and circulate between hosts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine S Xue
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Foege Building S-250, Box 3550653720 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98195-5065, USA.,Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA.,Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Jesse D Bloom
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Foege Building S-250, Box 3550653720 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98195-5065, USA.,Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA
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10
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Pérez-Losada M, Arenas M, Galán JC, Bracho MA, Hillung J, García-González N, González-Candelas F. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) for the analysis of viral populations. INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 2020; 80:104208. [PMID: 32001386 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Revised: 01/21/2020] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The development of High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) technologies is having a major impact on the genomic analysis of viral populations. Current HTS platforms can capture nucleic acid variation across millions of genes for both selected amplicons and full viral genomes. HTS has already facilitated the discovery of new viruses, hinted new taxonomic classifications and provided a deeper and broader understanding of their diversity, population and genetic structure. Hence, HTS has already replaced standard Sanger sequencing in basic and applied research fields, but the next step is its implementation as a routine technology for the analysis of viruses in clinical settings. The most likely application of this implementation will be the analysis of viral genomics, because the huge population sizes, high mutation rates and very fast replacement of viral populations have demonstrated the limited information obtained with Sanger technology. In this review, we describe new technologies and provide guidelines for the high-throughput sequencing and genetic and evolutionary analyses of viral populations and metaviromes, including software applications. With the development of new HTS technologies, new and refurbished molecular and bioinformatic tools are also constantly being developed to process and integrate HTS data. These allow assembling viral genomes and inferring viral population diversity and dynamics. Finally, we also present several applications of these approaches to the analysis of viral clinical samples including transmission clusters and outbreak characterization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcos Pérez-Losada
- Computational Biology Institute, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA; CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Vairão 4485-661, Portugal
| | - Miguel Arenas
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology, University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain; Biomedical Research Center (CINBIO), University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain.
| | - Juan Carlos Galán
- Microbiology Service, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain; CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health, Spain.
| | - Mª Alma Bracho
- CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health, Spain; Joint Research Unit "Infection and Public Health" FISABIO-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Julia Hillung
- Joint Research Unit "Infection and Public Health" FISABIO-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), CSIC-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Neris García-González
- Joint Research Unit "Infection and Public Health" FISABIO-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), CSIC-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Fernando González-Candelas
- CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health, Spain; Joint Research Unit "Infection and Public Health" FISABIO-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), CSIC-University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
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