Characterization of human cytomegalovirus genome diversity in immunocompromised hosts by whole genomic sequencing directly from clinical specimens

Background: Advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies allow comprehensive studies of genetic diversity over the entire genome of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a significant pathogen for immunocompromised individuals. Methods: NGS was performed on target-enriched sequence libraries prepared directly from a variety of clinical specimens (blood, urine, breast-milk, respiratory samples, biopsies and vitreous humor) obtained longitudinally or from different anatomical compartments from 20 HCMV-infected patients (renal transplant recipients, stem cell transplant recipients and congenitally infected children). Results: De novo assembled HCMV genome sequences were obtained for 57/68 sequenced samples. Analysis of longitudinal or compartmental HCMV diversity revealed various patterns: no major differences were detected among longitudinal, intra-individual blood samples from 9/15 patients and in most of the patients with compartmental samples, whereas a switch of the major HCMV population was observed in six individuals with sequential blood samples and upon compartmental analysis of one patient with HCMV retinitis. Variant analysis revealed additional aspects of minor virus population dynamics and antiviral resistance mutations. Conclusions: In immunosuppressed patients, HCMV can remain relatively stable or undergo drastic genomic changes that are suggestive of the emergence of minor resident strains or de novo infection