HPV genotyping in clinical samples using long‐read single‐molecule real‐time sequencing

Abstract

AbstractHuman papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping is widely used, particularly in combination with high‐risk (HR) HPV tests for cervical cancer screening. We developed a genotyping method using sequences of approximately 800 bp in the E6/E7 region obtained by PacBio single molecule real‐time sequencing (SMRT) and evaluated its performance against MY09‐11 L1 sequencing and after the APTIMA HPV genotyping assay. The levels of concordance of PacBio E6/E7 SMRT sequencing with MY09‐11 L1 sequencing and APTIMA HPV genotyping were 100% and 90.8%, respectively. The sensitivity of PacBio E6/EA7 SMRT was slightly greater than that of L1 sequencing and, as expected, lower than that of HR‐HPV tests. In the context of cervical cancer screening, PacBio E6/E7 SMRT is then best used after a positive HPV test. PacBio E6/E7 SMRT genotyping is an attractive alternative for HR and LR‐HPV genotyping of clinical samples. PacBio SMRT sequencing provides unbiased genotyping and can detect multiple HPV infections and haplotypes within a genotype.