Rapid deep sequencing of patient-derived HIV with ion semiconductor technology

The development of next-generation sequencing technologies has facilitated the study of HIV drug resistance evolution. However, the high capacity and per-run cost of many sequencers is not ideal for viral sequencing unless many samples are analyzed simultaneously. Ion semiconductor sequencing has recently emerged as a flexible, lower-cost alternative with short runtime. This paper describes the use of Ion Torrent devices for deep sequencing of drug resistant HIV samples. High levels of sequencing coverage were obtained in HIV Gag and protease, allowing the detection of mutations at low frequencies.