TY - JOUR T1 - DNA from dust: comparative genomics of vaccine-break virus in the field JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/039479 SP - 039479 AU - Utsav Pandey AU - Andrew S. Bell AU - Daniel Renner AU - David A. Kennedy AU - Jacob Shreve AU - Chris L. Cairns AU - Matthew J. Jones AU - Patricia A. Dunn AU - Andrew F. Read AU - Moriah L. Szpara Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/06/16/039479.abstract N2 - The intensification of the poultry industry over the last sixty years facilitated the evolution of increased virulence and vaccine breaks in Marek’s disease virus (MDV). Full genome sequences are essential for understanding why and how this evolution occurred, but what is known about genome-wide variation in MDV comes from laboratory culture. To rectify this, we developed methods for obtaining high quality genome sequences direct from field samples without the need for sequence-based enrichment strategies prior to sequencing. We found that viral genomes from adjacent field sites had high levels of overall DNA identity, and despite strong evidence of purifying selection, had coding variations in proteins associated with virulence and manipulation of host immunity. Our methods empower ecological field surveillance, make it possible to determine the basis of viral virulence and vaccine breaks, and can be used to obtain full genomes from clinical samples of other large DNA viruses, known and unknown. ER -