Genomic analysis of serologically untypable human enteroviruses in Taiwan

Abstract

Abstract Background Human enteroviruses contain over 100 serotypes. We have routinely conducted enterovirus surveillance in northern Taiwan; but about 10% of isolates could not be serotyped using traditional assays. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a powerful tool for genome sequencing. Methods In this study, we established an NGS platform to conduct genome sequencing for the serologically untypable enterovirus isolates. Results Among 130 serologically untypable isolates, 121 (93%) of them were classified into 29 serotypes using CODEHOP (COnsensus-DEgenerate Hybrid Oligonucleotide Primer)-based RT-PCR to amplify VP1 genes (VP1-CODEHOP). We further selected 52 samples for NGS and identified 59 genome sequences from 51 samples, including 8 samples containing two virus genomes. We also detected 23 genome variants (nucleotide identity < 90% compared with genome sequences in the public domain) which were potential genetic recombination, including 9 inter-serotype recombinants and 14 strains with unknown sources of recombination. Conclusions We successfully integrated VP1-CODEHOP and NGS techniques to conduct genomic analysis of serologically untypable enteroviruses.

Keywords

• Enterovirus
• Virus surveillance
• Molecular epidemiology
• Next-generation sequencing