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Review
. 2019 Oct 12;8(4):186.
doi: 10.3390/pathogens8040186.

Human Herpesvirus Sequencing in the Genomic Era: The Growing Ranks of the Herpetic Legion

Charlotte J Houldcroft  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Human Herpesvirus Sequencing in the Genomic Era: The Growing Ranks of the Herpetic Legion

Charlotte J Houldcroft. Pathogens. .

Abstract

The nine human herpesviruses are some of the most ubiquitous pathogens worldwide, causing life-long latent infection in a variety of different tissues. Human herpesviruses range from mild childhood infections to known tumour viruses and 'trolls of transplantation'. Epstein-Barr virus was the first human herpesvirus to have its whole genome sequenced; GenBank now includes thousands of herpesvirus genomes. This review will cover some of the recent advances in our understanding of herpesvirus diversity and disease that have come about as a result of new sequencing technologies, such as target enrichment and long-read sequencing. It will also look at the problem of resolving mixed-genotype infections, whether with short or long-read sequencing methods; and conclude with some thoughts on the future of the field as herpesvirus population genomics becomes a reality.

Keywords: DNA viruses; clinical sequencing; genomics; herpesviruses; population genetics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest. The funder had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A timeline of human herpesvirus genome sequence publication (strain name in brackets). Alphaherpesviruses are marked in magenta; betaherpesviruses are marked in teal; gammaherpesviruses are marked in dark blue.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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