Deep Sequencing of the Hepatitis B Virus Genome: Analysis of Multiple Samples by Implementation of the Illumina Platform.

Abstract

The quasispecies variation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) was believed to be a viral response to antiviral treatment and host immune pressure. Sanger sequencing was previously the classic approach for quasispecies analysis, but this method was also time-consuming and laborious. Ultra-deep sequencing has been widely used in viral quasispecies research, especially for low-frequency mutation detection. Here we present a multiple samples deep sequencing method employing the Illumina platform to detect HBV quasispecies variation in patient-derived samples.