Library preparation for highly accurate population sequencing of RNA viruses

Circular resequencing (CirSeq) is a novel technique for efficient and highly accurate next-generation sequencing (NGS) of RNA virus populations. The foundation of this approach is the circularization of fragmented viral RNAs, which are then redundantly encoded into tandem repeats by 'rolling-circle' reverse transcription. When sequenced, the redundant copies within each read are aligned to derive a consensus sequence of their initial RNA template. This process yields sequencing data with error rates far below the variant frequencies observed for RNA viruses, facilitating ultra-rare variant detection and accurate measurement of low-frequency variants. Although library preparation takes similar to 5 d, the high-quality data generated by CirSeq simplifies downstream data analysis, making this approach substantially more tractable for experimentalists.