DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/4W6M-XR54

Defense Date

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Bioinformatics

First Advisor

Michael McVoy

Second Advisor

Allison A Johnson

Third Advisor

Luiz S Ozaki

Abstract

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a member of the betaherpesvirinae subfamily of the Herpesvirus family. HCMV infection is common among adults worldwide, with an estimated seroprevalence of 66 to 95%, depending on the geographic region (Zuhair et al., 2019). Although most of the virus genomic content has been studied extensively, the terminal repeating region sequences remain understudied. Two main challenges hindered the study of the region: a) limitations of sequencing technologies; and b) misassembly of the repeats due to its complex nature. Here I show a novel bioinformatics pipeline that takes advantage of PacBio's long reads to resolve the challenges mentioned earlier. Implementation of the pipeline yielded results that supported previous assumptions of the terminal region, showed evidence of new findings, and provided in-depth analysis of the terminal repeat known as the a sequence.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

8-12-2022

Share

COinS