Dynamic transcriptome profiling dataset of vaccinia virus obtained from long-read sequencing techniques

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Genomics
• Transcriptomics

Background:

• Poxviruses, including Vaccinia virus (VACV), are significant DNA viruses impacting human and animal health.
• VACV, a prototype poxvirus, is crucial for studying viral molecular pathogenesis.
• Short-read sequencing has limitations in analyzing complex transcriptomes, such as RNA isoforms and overlaps, necessitating advanced methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To generate comprehensive long-read sequencing (LRS) data for the VACV transcriptome.
• To characterize the VACV RNA profile using advanced LRS technologies.
• To establish a foundational dataset for investigating VACV gene expression and virus-host interactions.

Main Methods:

• Application of Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) RSII and Sequel platforms for LRS.
• Utilization of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION device with various library preparation methods.
• Mapping of sequencing reads to both the VACV reference genome and the *Chlorocebus sabaeus* host genome.

Main Results:

• Generation of 937,531 mapped reads (1.42 Gb) from PacBio platforms.
• Acquisition of 2,160,348 aligned reads (1.75 Gb) using ONT MinION.
• Creation of a substantial dataset for in-depth analysis of the VACV transcriptome.

Conclusions:

• The generated LRS dataset is a valuable resource for studying the dynamic VACV transcriptome and virus-host interactions.
• The data can facilitate novel gene annotations within the VACV genome.
• This study provides a basis for analyzing and comparing different LRS platforms, library preparation techniques, and bioinformatics pipelines.