Title：Next generation sequencing for virus discovery and beyond

Speaker：Hui WANG

         Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK

         NERC/Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire 

         OX10 8BB, UK

Time：2014年9月16日（周二）10:00-11:00am

Place：生科院邓祐才报告厅

Host：张泽民教授（62768190）

There are approximately 5000 viral (species) reference genomes available in the public database whereas an estimate of the total viral species in the planet is in the range of 100 million including approximately 300,000 unknown species infecting mammals. Such a huge knowledge gap makes our strategies against viral diseases passive and in many cases, inefficient. The next generation sequencing (NGS) technology now offers a new capacity to make significant progress. The metagenomics approach has been proven to be powerful for disease aetiology and pathogen discovery. However, information gathering practice for viruses has not been routinely applied in genomics studies. In many research projects, sequence reads are firstly mapped against the reference genome(s) of interested (host) species and unmapped reads were no longer included in further analyses. Because NGS unselectively produces sequences of both hosts and the viruses infecting them, the NGS datasets are valuable resources for virus identification and discovery. In addition to a consensus sequence that conventional sequencing produces, a NGS dataset often enables further investigation on polymorphisms of viral genome positions. As NGS can easily achieve a deep coverage of a virus genome, NGS datasets offer new opportunities to investigate viral population structure and dynamics. It has been well demonstrated that many viruses have large populations with quasi-species characteristics. The structure and dynamics of viral quasi-species is an important factor for assessing viral threats of emerging diseases as well as for developing efficient strategies of anti-viral treatments. Due to the wide range of viral infections, exploitation of the new NGS opportunities will benefit not only the basic research of virology but also a much wider research community and beyond.