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The Journal of General Virology logoLink to The Journal of General Virology
. 2010 Mar;91(Pt 3):605–615. doi: 10.1099/vir.0.015891-0

Sequences of complete human cytomegalovirus genomes from infected cell cultures and clinical specimens

Charles Cunningham 1, Derek Gatherer 1, Birgitta Hilfrich 2, Katarina Baluchova 1, Derrick J Dargan 1, Marian Thomson 3, Paul D Griffiths 4, Gavin W G Wilkinson 5, Thomas F Schulz 2, Andrew J Davison 1
PMCID: PMC2885759  PMID: 19906940

Abstract

We have assessed two approaches to sequencing complete human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) genomes (236 kbp) in DNA extracted from infected cell cultures (strains 3157, HAN13, HAN20 and HAN38) or clinical specimens (strains JP and 3301). The first approach involved amplifying genomes from the DNA samples as overlapping PCR products, sequencing these by the Sanger method, acquiring reads from a capillary instrument and assembling these using the Staden programs. The second approach involved generating sequence data from the DNA samples by using an Illumina Genome Analyzer (IGA), processing the filtered reads by reference-independent (de novo) assembly, utilizing the resulting sequence to direct reference-dependent assembly of the same data and finishing by limited PCR sequencing. Both approaches were successful. In particular, the investigation demonstrated the utility of IGA data for efficiently sequencing genomes from clinical samples containing as little as 3 % HCMV DNA. Analysis of the genome sequences obtained showed that each of the strains grown in cell culture was a mutant. Certain of the mutations were shared among strains from independent clinical sources, thus suggesting that they may have arisen in a common ancestor during natural infection. Moreover, one of the strains (JP) sequenced directly from a clinical specimen was mutated in two genes, one of which encodes a proposed immune-evasion function, viral interleukin-10. These observations imply that HCMV mutants exist in human infections.

INTRODUCTION

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV; species Human herpesvirus 5) has the largest genome of any known human virus, at 236 kbp in size (Dolan et al., 2004). The genome is a linear, double-stranded DNA molecule consisting of two unique regions, each flanked by inverted repeats. The structure is represented as ab-UL-b′a′c′-US-ca, where UL and US denote the long and short unique regions and ba/b′a′ and ca/c′a′ indicate the inverted repeats. In wild-type HCMV strain Merlin (GenBank accession no. AY446894), the sizes of UL and US are 193 019 and 35 482 bp, respectively, and those of a/a′, b/b′ and c/c′ are 578, 746 and 1959 bp, respectively.

Many studies have shown that HCMV strains are impressively divergent in a subset of genes encoding membrane-associated or secreted proteins (e.g. Dolan et al., 2004; Murphy et al., 2003; Pignatelli et al., 2004). Each of these hypervariable genes exists as several highly diverged clusters of alleles, with a much lower level of allelic variation evident within individual clusters. The sequences of particular alleles are stable on short timescales in patients (Hassan-Walker et al., 2004; Stanton et al., 2005) and during cell culture (Lurain et al., 2006). These observations suggest that hypervariation is a result of immune selection and that the allelic clusters have a long history, perhaps having emerged during the evolution of populations of early humans or their predecessors (Bradley et al. 2008; Dolan et al., 2004). Also, there is extensive evidence that recombination has occurred during HCMV evolution, and that HCMV infections frequently involve multiple strains (e.g. Arav-Boger et al., 2005; Bates et al., 2008; Bradley et al., 2008; Mattick et al., 2004; Puchhammer-Stöckl & Görzer, 2006; Rasmussen et al., 2003; Yan et al., 2008). These factors add significant complexities to assessments of the associations between the genetic constitution of HCMV strains and disease outcome. Further work investigating HCMV genomes in clinical material is required in order to facilitate evaluations of the extent of strain variation, the occurrence of mixed infections and the biological correlates of particular genetic configurations.

All of the HCMV genome sequences published to date (Table 1) have been derived from strains grown in cell culture, which is known to exert selective pressure and induce genetic adaptations, some of which are extensive (Cha et al., 1996; Dolan et al., 2004; Prichard et al., 2001). With two recent exceptions discussed below, these sequences were determined by random shotgun cloning of standard bacterial plasmid libraries, bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) or purified virion DNA, followed by Sanger sequencing. To sequence HCMV genomes in clinical material, it is important to avoid cell culture, because of its mutagenic effects and the likelihood that not all strains present will transfer successfully from a specimen. Also, it is important not to utilize bacterial plasmids or BACs, since such clones may not fully represent the virus populations from which they originated. In this paper, we explore two approaches to sequencing complete HCMV genomes from infected cell cultures and clinical specimens that meet these requirements, and that also cope with the presence of high proportions of cellular DNA in such substrates.

Table 1.

Published HCMV genome sequences

HCMV strain Method Substrate GenBank accession no. Reference
AD169 varUK Sanger Plasmids BK000394 Chee et al. (1990)
AD169 varATCC Sanger BAC AC146999 Murphy et al. (2003)
FIX Sanger BAC AC146907 Murphy et al. (2003)
PH Sanger BAC AC146904 Murphy et al. (2003)
TB40/E Sanger BAC EF999921 Sinzger et al. (2008)
Toledo Sanger BAC AC146905 Murphy et al. (2003)
Towne varL Sanger BAC GQ121041 M. McVoy (unpublished data)
Towne varS Sanger BAC AC146851 Murphy et al. (2003)
AY315197 Dunn et al. (2003)
TR Sanger BAC AC146906 Murphy et al. (2003)
Merlin Sanger Virion DNA AY446894 Dolan et al. (2004)
AD169 varUC IGA Virion DNA FJ527563 Bradley et al. (2009)
Towne varL IGA Infected cell DNA FJ616285 Bradley et al. (2009)
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The first approach (PCR sequencing) involved generating numerous, overlapping PCR products from HCMV genomes and analysing them by Sanger sequencing. This overcomes the presence of cellular DNA by amplifying HCMV sequences selectively. It amounts to an extension of a method that has been used by many researchers to analyse selected regions of HCMV genomes, in some studies to a substantial extent (Brondke et al., 2007; Dolan et al., 2004).

The use of an Illumina Genome Analyzer (IGA) formed the basis of the second approach (IGA sequencing). This high-throughput instrument generates such a large number of sequence reads that a virus genome can be sequenced even when diluted substantially by cellular DNA. Genome sequences may be assembled from IGA data by two strategies, each of which has advantages. Reference-dependent assembly (DA) involves aligning the reads with a reference sequence, whereas reference-independent (de novo) assembly (IA) deduces long contiguous sequences (contigs) from the reads alone. DA is likely to cover a genome more comprehensively than IA, and in a manner that does not contain erroneously joined regions. On the other hand, IA, by not requiring a reference, is not biased by presumptions made about the target sequence.

We used DA previously to sequence strain AD169 variant UC (varUC) and strain Towne varL from samples that contained high proportions of HCMV DNA (Bradley et al., 2009). These are the two exceptions mentioned above (Table 1). In the present paper, we have assessed the utility of DA and IA for sequencing HCMV genomes from infected cell cultures and clinical specimens containing much lower proportions of HCMV DNA. We developed a strategy for analysing HCMV genomes by IGA sequencing that consists of processing filtered reads by IA, then using the resulting sequence as a reference in DA in order to inspect the read alignment and correct any errors, and finally finishing by limited PCR sequencing.

RESULTS

HCMV genomes sequenced

The sequences of six HCMV strains were determined, some by more than one method (Table 2). Strains 3157, JP and HAN13 were analysed by PCR sequencing, and strains HAN13, HAN20, HAN38 and 3301 by IGA sequencing. IGA data were assembled by two strategies, DA and IA, and, during the latter process, HCMV Gap4 contigs were aligned by using a cognate scaffold (IAC) or a generic scaffold (IAG). The analysis was supplemented by IAC of data reported previously for strains AD169 varUC and Towne varL (Bradley et al., 2009).

Table 2.

HCMV strains analysed: sources, sequencing methods and mutations

HCMV strain Source Sequencing method* Genes mutated
Clinical Geographical DNA Passage PCR DA IAC IAG
3157 Urine from a congenitally infected infant Cardiff, UK Fibroblast culture virions 3 ✓ RL13, UL40, UL128
JP Post-mortem prostate tissue from an AIDS patient London, UK Clinical material 0 ✓ RL5A, UL111A
AD169 varUC† Adenoid tissue Bethesda, MD, USA Fibroblast culture virions Many ✓ ✓ Several
Towne varL† Urine from a congenitally infected infant Philadelphia, PA, USA Fibroblast culture cells Many ✓ ✓ Several
HAN13 Bronchoalveolar lavage Hannover, Germany Fibroblast culture cells 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ RL5A
HAN20 Bronchoalveolar lavage Hannover, Germany Fibroblast culture cells 2 ✓ US9
HAN38 Bronchoalveolar lavage Hannover, Germany Fibroblast culture cells 2 ✓ RL6, US9
3301 Urine from a congenitally infected infant Cardiff, UK Clinical material 0 ✓ ✓ ✓ None
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*DA, Reference-dependent assembly of IGA data; IAC, reference-independent assembly of IGA data using a cognate scaffold at the Gap4 stage; IAG, reference-independent assembly of IGA data using a generic scaffold at the Gap4 stage. ✓ indicates that the method was used.

†DA of IGA data, passage histories and identities of mutated genes have been reported previously for strains AD169 varUC and Towne varL (Bradley et al., 2009).

PCR sequencing

The PCR sequencing approach was successful and, as it has been used previously in many studies for analysing regions of HCMV genomes, it is not elaborated further. However, IGA sequencing is a novel approach that has been utilized with HCMV only for DA of strains AD169 varUC and Towne varL, and is expanded upon below.

IGA sequencing: reference-dependent assembly

IGA sequences were assembled in the present study by DA for strains HAN13 and 3301 (Table 2). A summary of the results is provided in Table 3.

Table 3.

Results of assembling Illumina Genome Analyzer (IGA) data

HCMV strain Total reads (no.) DA* IA (IAC or IAG)*
HCMV reads (no.) HCMV reads (%) HCMV genome coverage (reads nt−1) Total Phrap contigs (no.) HCMV Phrap contigs (no.) HCMV Gap4 contigs (no.) HCMV genome coverage (%) Gaps between HCMV Gap4 contigs (no.) Total length of gaps (nt) Errors in HCMV Gap4 contigs (no.)
AD169 varUC† 6264332 5788753 92 1267 10 6 1 100 0 0 1
Towne varL† 5079235 2390159 47 516 96 9 3 99.97 2 69 0
HAN13 3157639 855653 27 184 137 19 6 99.78 5 506 7
HAN20 7035348 1040651 15 224 405 8 2 99.97 1 68 2
HAN38 7904170 591446 8 127 472 8 3 99.85 2 343 1
3301 5967563 197665 3 43 560 24 9 99.41 8 1378 1
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*See Table 2 footnote.

†See Table 2 footnote.

The reference used for strain HAN13 was generated from the genome determined by PCR sequencing, and, as anticipated, needed no improvements (i.e. the sequences derived by the two methods were identical). The reference used for strain 3301 was constructed by inserting strain 3301 sequences generated by PCR sequencing into a strain Merlin backbone. The strain 3301 PCR sequences had either been published previously (Dolan et al., 2004; GenBank accession numbers are given below) or were produced for the present study. They totalled 57 977 bp (approx. 25 %) of the reference: 18 452 bp containing genes RL5A to UL11 and parts of flanking genes RL1 and UL13 (AY446862), 2820 bp containing genes UL73, UL74, UL74A and parts of flanking genes UL72 and UL75, 6096 bp containing gene UL111A and parts of flanking genes UL105 and UL112 (AY446874), 25 616 bp containing genes UL120 to UL150 and part of the flanking gene UL119 (AY446864), 2011 bp extending from AY446864 into the b′, a′ and part of the c′ inverted repeats, and 2982 bp containing genes US34 and US34A and part of gene US32. The read consensus was extracted from the DA and used as an improved reference, thus correcting mismatches due to components in the initial reference that had originated from strain Merlin. Residual gaps in the read consensus due to insertions/deletions (indels) or clustered mismatches were remedied by utilizing an alignment of previously determined HCMV sequences as a guide to producing a further improved reference by reiterative local assembly. DA using this reference left four small gaps in the read consensus. One was located at the left end of UL (including the junction with the adjacent b inverted repeat), one in a (G+C)-rich region near the origin of DNA replication, and two in tandem, direct repeats of undetermined lengths (one a 3 nt reiteration and the other a 1 nt reiteration or homopolymeric tract). These gaps were resolved by PCR sequencing. At the conclusion of the assembly process, a total of 3 % of the reads aligned with the final sequence.

IGA sequencing: reference-independent assembly

An example of the output of the earlier stages of IA is given for strain Towne varL in Table 4, and the output for this and the other strains at the later stages is listed in Table 3. Thus, for strain Towne, 11 filtered datasets, in addition to the unfiltered dataset assembled with two values of k, were employed in 13 assemblies (Table 4). A total of 2087 pooled IA contigs was generated (the sum of the ‘all contigs’ column in Table 4). From the 1664 pooled, non-redundant IA contigs derived from these, 96 Phrap contigs and then nine HCMV Phrap contigs were produced, which were merged by IAC into three HCMV Gap4 contigs (Table 3).

Table 4.

Results of filtering treatments for strain Towne varL

Filtering treatment k Reads after filtering (no.) Contig size (kb) Contigs (no.) Velvet parameter (value)*
Median Maximum Total All >1 kb >5 kb Exp_cov Cov_cutoff
Unfiltered 21 5079235 8 25 246 237 36 16 290 42
25 5079235 14 44 246 178 30 13 250 41
Singletons removed 21 1682785 13 32 231 65 27 14 210 82
Overall quality:
    >1900 21 2338321 3 16 292 765 64 16 110 11
    >1700 21 4156964 7 32 264 383 46 13 220 26
25 4156964 11 32 243 150 32 16 190 44
Quality truncation, length >29 21 2609325 7 15 242 233 36 13 65 26
Truncated to length:
    40 21 5079235 14 45 251 256 21 12 190 25
25 5079235 18 44 242 114 23 12 160 38
    35 21 5079235 29 65 246 176 18 8 150 26
25 5079235 31 68 242 99 13 10 110 30
    30 21 5079235 24 68 240 90 20 11 105 32
25 5079235 54 68 237 61 8 7 60 24
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*Each dataset was assembled using Velvet-0.7.31 (see Methods). Exp_cov, Optimal expected coverage; cov_cutoff, optimal coverage cut-off.

For all strains analysed, differences between the HCMV Gap4 contigs and the final sequence were few. They had several origins: errors in the HCMV Gap4 contigs resulting from IA (Table 3), poor base calling at specific locations in reads on one strand, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and ambiguities in the lengths of tandem repeats. For tandem repeats, in some instances ambiguities were not solved uniquely for homopolymeric tracts longer than about 12 nt either by local reiterative DA or by PCR sequencing, probably because of heterogeneity in the virus genome.

Strains AD169 varUC, Towne varL, HAN13 and 3301 were processed by IAC (Table 2). Strain AD169 varUC contains a mixture of two genomes, the major one lacking a 3.7 kbp sequence consisting of the c′ inverted repeat and the left end of US, and the minor one being intact in this region (Bradley et al., 2009). The single HCMV Gap4 contig covered the major genome sequence entirely (Table 3) and contained a single error. Similarly, the HCMV Gap4 contigs obtained for strains Towne varL, HAN13 and 3301 covered the great majority of the genomes in relatively few contigs, and most contained a small number of errors.

Strains HAN20, HAN38 and 3301 were processed by IAG (Table 2). No prior sequence information was available for strains HAN20 or HAN38 and, although the strain 3301 sequence had already been determined by IAC, the IGA data were analysed afresh. The HCMV Gap4 contigs obtained for strains HAN20 and HAN38 covered the great majority of the genomes in relatively few contigs, with a small number of errors. The state of completeness of the HCMV Gap4 contigs for strain 3301 was the same as that resulting from IAC.

All of the sequences were completed by reiterative DA or limited PCR sequencing. The most prominent gaps between HCMV Gap4 contigs were located in (G+C)-rich, quasirepetitive sequences at the origin of DNA replication and in the b/b′ inverted repeat. The latter region is hypervariable, and in most cases required PCR sequencing for finishing.

Mutations in the HCMV genomes sequenced

By comparison with sequence data available for other HCMV strains, the six strains sequenced in the present study appeared to contain the full complement of wild-type HCMV genes, with no extensive deletions. However, several apparent mutations were identified as differences from other strains that were predicted to ablate gene function (Table 2). In strain 3157, gene RL13 was frameshifted by a 2 bp insertion, and gene UL128, which consists of three coding exons, was truncated by a substitution in the first splice donor site (the crucial GT dinucleotide was mutated to CT). Both of these mutations have been reported previously from partial sequence data (Akter et al., 2003). In addition, a substitution was present in the first ATG codon of the gene UL40 coding region, resulting in a change to ACG. In strain HAN13, a 17 bp deletion caused a frameshift in gene RL5A. In strain HAN20, a 35 bp deletion resulted in 3′-truncation of the gene US9 coding region. In strain HAN38, gene US9 contained an identical deletion and, in addition, a 17 bp deletion caused a frameshift in gene RL6. In strain JP, gene RL5A was frameshifted by a 2 bp deletion, and gene UL111A, which consists of three exons, was truncated by a 38 bp deletion in a region that includes the first splice-donor site.

DISCUSSION

Sequencing HCMV genomes

The aim of the present study was to explore the feasibility of determining HCMV genome sequences directly from infected cell cultures without purifying virus DNA or constructing bacterial plasmids and, more importantly, from clinical specimens without growing virus in cell culture. The six HCMV strains targeted included four grown in cell culture (3157 as purified virion DNA and HAN13, HAN20 and HAN38 as infected cell DNA) and two directly from clinical material (JP and 3301).

Two approaches were assessed. The first (PCR sequencing) involved amplifying HCMV genomes as sets of overlapping PCR products, sequencing them by the Sanger method, acquiring reads from a standard capillary instrument and assembling data using the Staden programs. Although it was possible to benefit from efficiencies of scale by processing strains in parallel, this approach was labour-intensive. Nonetheless, PCR sequencing yielded complete sequences for strains 3157, JP and HAN13, without prior knowledge of the target sequences or additional input from other methods. The proportions of HCMV DNA in the 3157 and JP samples are not known, and that in the HAN13 sample was estimated at 27 % (Table 3). However, substantial regions of the strain 3301 genome were easily PCR-sequenced for use in constructing a DA reference, implying that this approach would succeed for samples containing as little as 3 % HCMV DNA.

The second approach (IGA sequencing) promised greater efficiency than PCR sequencing, and involved processing IGA data by the DA or IA strategies. We had previously used DA to sequence samples of strains AD169 varUC and Towne varL, containing high proportions of DNA (92 and 47 %, respectively; Table 3). In the present study, we explored the extended capabilities of IGA sequencing using samples containing smaller proportions of HCMV DNA. DA for strains HAN13 and 3301 was successful. However, this assembly mode required a reference for each strain, and this involved prior knowledge of the target sequence. DA for strain HAN13 was straightforward, as the reference was derived from the complete genome sequence for this strain determined by PCR sequencing. However, DA for strain 3301 required greater effort because the best available reference consisted of a mosaic of 25 % strain 3301 sequences (including most of the hypervariable regions) in a backbone of 75 % strain Merlin sequences. An alternative application of DA, not requiring prior knowledge of the target genome, would involve using a generic, rather than a custom, reference. However, an attempt at DA of the strain 3301 data against a generic reference (strain Merlin) resulted in many gaps in the read consensus, due to failure to assemble reads in regions that are hypervariable or contain indels. Thus, although use of a generic reference in DA would, in principle, avoid the need to determine significant parts of the target sequence by other methods, in practice it poses a formidable hurdle. This state of affairs currently renders DA inadequate as a primary means of sequencing HCMV genomes.

IA offers obvious advantages over DA for sequencing HCMV genomes because it does not require a reference, and thus no presumptions are made about the target sequence. However, our initial experience of IA with single versions of datasets (filtered or unfiltered) was disappointing, as it resulted in large numbers of small contigs (e.g. see the outputs of individual treatments in Table 4). To overcome this, we arrived heuristically at a process for filtering reads and combining the IA contigs from multiple assemblies by Phrap assembly and then Gap4 assembly against a cognate scaffold (IAC) or a generic scaffold (IAG) to yield a high-quality reference for DA. The involvement of DA at this stage permitted the read alignment to be inspected, which, given the observation that IA contigs may contain errors, was a useful verification step. Moreover, inspection of the read alignment facilitated resolution of remaining ambiguities and gaps by local reiterative assembly or PCR sequencing.

We have shown that an HCMV genome in a sample from clinical material containing only 3 % HCMV DNA can be determined by IGA sequencing, as long as sufficient total DNA is present in the sample. The developing capability of IGA technology to produce greater numbers of longer reads in paired-end form and of the assembly software to produce more accurate, larger contigs will effectively reduce this minimum and streamline the assembly process. Moreover, future technologies are likely to improve the situation further. However, two challenges remain to the routine sequencing of complete HCMV genomes from clinical specimens. Firstly, many samples, especially those from healthy individuals, contain such low levels of HCMV DNA that they will prove refractory to sequencing without prior enrichment and amplification steps. Possibilities in this regard include the isolation of encapsidated DNA or the purification of virus DNA by buoyant density centrifugation, followed by whole-genome amplification. Secondly, many HCMV infections involve multiple strains, and methods that facilitate physical separation of their genomes, e.g. molecular hybridization via hypervariable regions, BAC cloning directly from clinical sample DNA (Zhou et al., 2009) (although this suffers from the disadvantages mentioned above) or extended, single-molecule sequencing, will be required in addition.

We have now added the complete genome sequences of six HCMV strains to the three that we have already contributed to the research field. Together with the genome sequences of additional strains that we have not reported in the present paper, these will provide grist for future detailed studies of sequence variation and recombination in HCMV.

Mutations in HCMV genomes

For the purposes of the present work, the term ‘mutation’ is used to mean a sequence difference from other strains that is predicted to ablate gene function, as opposed to variation, which, although also a result of mutational processes, is not necessarily deleterious. However, it is probable that mutations resembling variations, such as any that might be responsible for functionally detrimental amino acid replacements, would have escaped identification. Thus, the mutations identified in the strains sequenced (Table 2) were apparent because of their locations in protein-encoding regions and probable deleterious effects on functional protein expression. They included indels that cause frameshifts, and substitutions that affect initiation codons or splice sites or create termination codons. Some of the observed mutations occurred in genes RL5A, RL6 and RL13, which are hypervariable members of a group of related genes called the RL11 family.

The specific mutations in genes RL13, UL40 and UL128 that characterize strain 3157 have not been identified in other strains, and may have arisen during cell culture. Genes RL13 and UL128 (or one of its neighbours, UL130 and UL131A) often mutate during adaptation of HCMV to fibroblast cell culture (Akter et al., 2003; Dolan et al., 2004; Hahn et al., 2004). Genes UL128/UL130/UL131A are involved in entry into non-fibroblast cells (e.g. Ryckman et al., 2008), and the function of the predicted class I glycoprotein encoded by gene RL13 is not known. The presence of a substitution in the first ATG codon of the gene UL40 coding region indicates that translation occurs either from the resulting ACG codon or from the second ATG codon, or from both. This may be significant because the predicted signal peptide sequence of the glycoprotein expressed from the first ATG is similar to conserved peptides derived from cellular major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. These peptides bind to, and upregulate, expression of human leukocyte antigen E (HLA-E), which protects targets from natural killer (NK) cell lysis by interacting with CD94/NKG2A receptors. UL40 contributes to NK cell evasion by this means (Tomasec et al., 2000). It would be of interest to assess the HLA-E-mediated NK evasion phenotype of strain 3157.

Neither gene RL13 nor genes UL128/UL130/UL131A are visibly mutated in the other HCMV strains grown in cell culture that were sequenced in the present study. However, each strain contains other lesions. The gene RL6 mutation in strain HAN38 has not been identified in other strains and may have arisen during cell culture. In contrast, the gene RL5A mutation in strain HAN13 is also present in the independently derived strains AD169 (Davison et al., 2003) and Davis (A. J. Davison and others, unpublished data), thus indicating that it probably existed in the original clinical specimens and was inherited from a common ancestor. Also, the gene US9 mutation in strains HAN20 and HAN38 has been reported in several other HCMV isolates (Rasmussen et al., 2003), and thus clearly characterizes strains that circulate in the human population. This deletion is classed as a mutation but, given its location near the 3′-end of the coding region, it is possible that it does not ablate function and therefore amounts to a variation. The role of gene RL5A during infection has not been studied, and that of gene US9 during infection is not yet known (Huber et al., 2002; Mandic et al., 2009).

In contrast to material from cell culture, where adaptation is known to occur, it might be expected that strains in clinical specimens would not bear mutations. Indeed, this is apparently the case for strain 3301. However, genes RL5A and UL111A are both mutated in strain JP. Gene UL111A encodes viral interleukin-10 (vIL-10; Kotenko et al., 2000; Lockridge et al., 2000), which has been proposed to have a role in immune modulation through its effect on myeloid cells (e.g. Chang et al., 2009). Our analysis of the sequence of the BAC derived from strain PH (Table 1), which was isolated from a transplant recipient suffering from HCMV disease, identified a mutation in gene UL111A different from that in strain JP, specifically a substitution in the splice-acceptor site for the second exon (the crucial AG dinucleotide is mutated to AA). However, these findings do not necessarily indicate that HCMV strains defective in vIL-10 expression are circulating in the human population, as it is conceivable that expression of this function is not advantageous, and may even be disadvantageous, to HCMV under certain circumstances of host immunodeficiency. However, it is possible that such strains are more likely to cause disease, and thus a wider investigation of the existence of vIL-10 mutants in immunocompromised people, both with and without HCMV disease, would be worthwhile.

The observations made above have given a preliminary indication that HCMV mutants, in addition to those selected by antiviral treatment (Chou, 2008), do indeed exist in clinical settings. The finding that HCMV strains in some clinical specimens contain mutations in gene UL1 (Sekulin et al., 2007), which is another hypervariable member of the RL11 gene family, is consistent with this perspective. An understanding of the extent to which HCMV mutants exist and circulate in human populations, and their potential effects on pathogenesis, is likely to be aided by further sequencing of HCMV genomes in clinical specimens.

METHODS

Isolation of DNA.

Pertinent features of the HCMV strains analysed are provided in Table 2. DNA for strains JP and 3301 was extracted directly from clinical specimens, and that for the other strains was obtained from cultures of human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) infected via clinical specimens. For strain 3157, DNA was purified from cell-released virions isolated from five 175 cm2 cell-culture flasks of infected HFFs as described previously (McSharry et al., 2003). For strain JP, DNA was purified from 0.1 g prostate gland tissue using the NucliSENS easyMAG extraction system (bioMérieux). For strains HAN13, HAN20 and HAN38, DNA was purified from a 75 cm2 cell-culture flask of infected HFFs using a QIAamp 96 DNA Blood kit (Qiagen), and the numbers of virus genomes per cell were measured by standard methods at 44 417, 13 345 and 10 000, respectively (Engelmann et al., 2008; Wandinger et al., 2000). For strain 3301, 12 ml urine was centrifuged at 25 000 g for 1 h, and DNA was purified from the pellet as described previously (McSharry et al., 2003). DNA concentrations were estimated by agarose gel electrophoresis followed by ethidium bromide staining.

PCR sequencing.

A library of conserved, HCMV-specific primers for generating and sequencing PCR products was designed from data available for published complete HCMV genomes or substantial portions thereof (Table 1; Dolan et al., 2004). The primer list is available from the corresponding author. PCR primers (usually 24 nt) were positioned so that each product overlapped its neighbours by 100–300 bp. In general, sequencing primers (usually 18 nt) were located on each DNA strand at about 500 nt intervals, so that the distance between any primer and its nearest neighbours on the opposing strand was about 250 nt. During the process of deriving genome sequences for a series of HCMV strains, primers were refined reiteratively in order to maximize conservation and effectiveness. The current number of PCR products is 105 (mean size, 2.5 kbp), and the total number of PCR and sequencing primers is 1121. Allele-specific primers were used for some hypervariable regions.

PCRs were carried out under two sets of conditions, using Advantage 2 DNA polymerase with the proprietary PCR buffer (Clontech). Details of the conditions applied to specific PCR products are available from the corresponding author. The first set of conditions was used to generate the majority of products, and involved a 50 μl reaction in 1× PCR buffer containing sample DNA (the amount being determined empirically), 0.2 μM each PCR primer (Sigma-Genosys), dNTPs (0.2 mM each) and 1 μl DNA polymerase (both from Clontech). The PCR program was conducted in a GeneAmp PCR system 9700 instrument (Applied Biosystems), and consisted of heating the reaction mixture at 95 °C for 2 min, followed by 35 cycles at 95 °C for 45 s, 60 °C for 30 s and 68 °C for 1 min kbp−1, and holding at 4 °C. The second set of conditions involved a 50 μl reaction in 1× PCR buffer containing sample DNA, 0.2 μM each PCR primer, dNTPs (0.2 mM each), 1.6 M betaine (Sigma-Aldrich) and 1 μl DNA polymerase. The PCR program consisted of heating the reaction mixture at 96 °C for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles at 94 °C for 15 s, 62 °C for 40 s and 68 °C for 1 min kbp−1, and holding at 4 °C.

The PCR products were isolated by agarose gel electrophoresis and purified by using a GENECLEAN Turbo kit (MP Biomedicals). Most PCR products were sequenced directly, but some were cloned into pGEM-T (Promega) and, for each product, four to six plasmids were sequenced.

Sequencing reactions were set up in 96-well PCR trays using proprietary reagents (Applied Biosystems). The 10 μl reactions in 0.875× PCR buffer consisted of purified PCR product (the amount being determined empirically), 0.32 μM sequencing primer (Sigma-Genosys) and 0.5 μl BigDyes (Applied Biosystems) containing DNA polymerase. The thermal program consisted of heating at 96 °C for 4 min, followed by 25 cycles at 96 °C for 10 s, 50 °C for 5 s and 60 °C for 4 min, and holding at 4 °C. Sequence data were generated at the BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre (University of Glasgow) using an Applied Biosystems 3730 instrument.

Sequence databases were compiled from the electropherogram files by using Pregap4, Gap4 (Staden et al., 2000) and Phred (Ewing & Green, 1998; Ewing et al., 1998). The genome sequences were reconstructed from the final, edited databases after locating the genome termini by comparison with those determined experimentally for strain Merlin (Dolan et al., 2004).

IGA sequencing.

Sequence datasets for strains HAN13, HAN20, HAN38 and 3301, each consisting of several million single-end reads with associated quality data, were generated from DNA samples using an IGA operated according to the manufacturer's protocols at the GenePool (University of Edinburgh). Methodological information is available at http://www.illumina.com. The amount of DNA submitted for strains HAN13, HAN20 and HAN38 was approximately 1–4 μg. The strain 3301 sample contained less DNA, and a nominal amount (approx. 0.1 μg, corresponding to 2 ml urine) was submitted.

Processing IGA data by reference-dependent assembly.

The reference consisted of an appropriate HCMV genome sequence trimmed of the inverted repeats (ac and ba) at the genome termini, except for 50 nt regions proximal to the beginning of UL and the end of US, in order to minimize ambiguities due to the inverted repeats. The reads were aligned with the reference using Maq-0.6.8, and the alignment of reads with the reference and read consensus was inspected by using Maqview-0.2.1 (Li et al., 2008; http://maq.sourceforge.net). The reference was then improved by reiterative DA, employing the whole sequence or substrings thereof (local reiterative DA), until the final reference matched the read alignment. As a last step, the read consensus was extracted and aligned with the reference by using mafft-6.240 (Katoh et al., 2005), and any differences were inspected in the read alignment. Discrepancies and gaps in the read consensus due to lack of coverage were resolved by PCR sequencing, and differences due to poor base calling at specific locations in reads on one strand or to SNPs were noted.

Processing IGA data by reference-independent assembly.

The IGA data were processed in five stages, which are expanded below: (i) filtering the reads by a range of treatments, (ii) IA of each resulting dataset to generate contigs consisting of HCMV or cellular sequences, (iii) Phrap assembly of all of the IA contigs combined from the assemblies to generate Phrap contigs, (iv) Gap4 assembly of the Phrap contigs against an HCMV genome scaffold to generate HCMV Gap4 contigs, and (v) DA of the IGA data using a reference constructed from the HCMV Gap4 contigs. The stages of this process were enabled and connected by using Perl scripts, which are available from the corresponding author.

(i) The reads in each IGA dataset were examined for singletons (unique reads), overall quality, and quality at each base. They were filtered by removing singletons, removing reads below a minimum overall quality, truncating reads at the point where perfect quality ceased (quality truncation) or truncating reads to a set length, or combinations of these steps. The filtering treatments used for each dataset were chosen empirically on the basis of the IA output, with a preference for those that reduced the number of reads by approximately 20–60 %. Details of the filtering treatments used are listed in Table 5.

Table 5.

Filtering treatments and hash lengths (k) used

✓ indicates that data from the treatment method were utilized in assembly.

Filtering treatment k HCMV strain
AD169 varUC Towne varL HAN13 HAN20 HAN38 3301
Unfiltered 21 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
19 ✓
25 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Singletons removed 21 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
25 ✓
27 ✓
Overall quality
    >1900 21 ✓ ✓
    >1700 21 ✓ ✓ ✓
25 ✓ ✓
    >1300 21 ✓ ✓ ✓
25 ✓ ✓
Quality truncation, length
    >39 21 ✓ ✓ ✓
    >29 21 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Truncated to length
    49 21 ✓
    40 21 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Truncated to length 40, then singletons removed 21 ✓
Truncated to length
    40 29 ✓
25 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
    35 21 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Truncated to length 35, then singletons removed 21 ✓
Truncated to length
    35 25 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
    30 21 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
25 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
29 ✓
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(ii) Each unfiltered or filtered dataset was assembled by using Velvet-0.7.31 (Zerbino & Birney, 2008; http://www.ebi.ac.uk/∼zerbino/velvet). Velvet uses a de Bruijn graph method to represent the reads in terms of words of hash length k, which is a number smaller than the read length (50 nt). The default value used was k=21, but k=25, 27 or 29 occasionally yielded longer contigs. Details of the values of k used are listed in Table 5. For initial assembly of each dataset, the Velvet parameters exp_cov (optimal expected coverage) and cov_cutoff (optimal coverage cut-off) were set to 1 and 0, respectively. The filtered reads were then reassembled with exp_cov optimized with the aid of functions in the R plotrix package (accessible via Velvet) and employed at all cov_cutoff values between 0 and 200. The optimal cov_cutoff value was defined as that at which the median and maximum contig sizes were greatest. The contigs (with no minimum length threshold set) were then collected for each dataset version at the optimal values of cov_cutoff and exp_cov. All IA contigs from the filtered datasets were pooled, and duplicates and substrings of other contigs were identified and removed.

(iii) The pooled, non-redundant IA contigs were assembled into larger contigs by using Phrap-1.080812 (http://www.phrap.org) with default parameters.

(iv) The Phrap contigs were aligned with an HCMV genome scaffold using Gap4, thus retaining only those contigs (HCMV Phrap contigs) that originated from the virus genome. Two alternative scaffolds were used in processes denoted IAC and IAG. For IAC, a cognate scaffold was fashioned (at least in part) from the sequence of the relevant strain determined by other methods. For IAG, a generic scaffold was constructed from the strain Merlin sequence. The HCMV Phrap contigs often exhibited clusters of sequence differences from the scaffold adjoining their ends, probably as a result of erroneous alignments that had terminated the IA contigs. These mismatched bases were removed. HCMV Phrap contigs that overlapped each other were then joined, yielding a set of HCMV Gap4 contigs.

(v) A reference consisting of the HCMV Gap4 contigs with any gaps patched by parts of the cognate or generic scaffold was used for DA. The reference was then improved and the sequence finished by reiterative DA and PCR sequencing, as described above.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. We are grateful to Wai Kwong Lee and Stewart Laing (University of Glasgow) for providing ABI 3730 DNA sequencing services, to David Martin (University of Dundee) and other members of the Scottish NextGenSeq Bioinformatics User Group for helpful conversations on IGA read quality and filtering, and to Duncan McGeoch (MRC Virology Unit) for commenting on the manuscript.

Footnotes

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the genome sequences of HCMV strains 3157, JP, HAN13, HAN20, HAN38 and 3301 are GQ221974, GQ221975, GQ221973, GQ396663, GQ396662 and GQ466044, respectively. The Illumina Genome Analyzer sequence datasets for HCMV strains HAN13, HAN20, HAN38 and 3301 are available from the corresponding author.

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