Genomic variation in macrophage-cultured European porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus Olot/91 revealed using ultra-deep next generation sequencing

• Published in: Virology journal Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 42
• Main Authors: Lu, Zen H, Brown, Alexander, Wilson, Alison D, Calvert, Jay G, Balasch, Monica, Fuentes-Utrilla, Pablo, Loecherbach, Julia, Turner, Frances, Talbot, Richard, Archibald, Alan L, Ait-Ali, Tahar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Springer-Verlag 04.03.2014; BioMed Central Ltd; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Animals; Cluster Analysis; economic impact; Evolution, Molecular; genes; Genetic Variation; Genome, Viral; Genotype; glycoproteins; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; macrophages; Macrophages - virology; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome; Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus - classification; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus - genetics; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus - growth & development; Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus - isolation & purification; RNA, Viral - genetics; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Short Report; Swine; viral nonstructural proteins; Virus Cultivation; viruses
• ISSN: 1743-422X; 1743-422X
• DOI: 10.1186/1743-422X-11-42

BACKGROUND: Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is a disease of major economic impact worldwide. The etiologic agent of this disease is the PRRS virus (PRRSV). Increasing evidence suggest that microevolution within a coexisting quasispecies population can give rise to high sequence heterogeneity in PRRSV. FINDINGS: We developed a pipeline based on the ultra-deep next generation sequencing approach to first construct the complete genome of a European PRRSV, strain Olot/9, cultured on macrophages and then capture the rare variants representative of the mixed quasispecies population. Olot/91 differs from the reference Lelystad strain by about 5% and a total of 88 variants, with frequencies as low as 1%, were detected in the mixed population. These variants included 16 non-synonymous variants concentrated in the genes encoding structural and nonstructural proteins; including Glycoprotein 2a and 5. CONCLUSION: Using an ultra-deep sequencing methodology, the complete genome of Olot/91 was constructed without any prior knowledge of the sequence. Rare variants that constitute minor fractions of the heterogeneous PRRSV population could successfully be detected to allow further exploration of microevolutionary events.