Lisa A. Bishop

Influenza C in Lancaster, UK, in the winter of 2014-2015

Influenza C is not included in the annual seasonal influenza vaccine, and has historically been regarded as a minor respiratory pathogen. However, recent work has highlighted its potential role as a cause of pneumonia in infants. We performed nasopharyngeal or nasal swabbing and/or serum sampling (n = 148) in Lancaster, UK, over the winter of 2014–2015. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we obtain seropositivity of 77%. By contrast, only 2 individuals, both asymptomatic adults, were influenza C-positive by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Deep sequencing of nasopharyngeal samples produced partial sequences for 4 genome segments in one of these patients. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the influenza C genome from this individual is evolutionarily distant to those sampled in recent years and represents a novel genome constellation, indicating that it may be a product of a decades-old reassortment event. Although we find no evidence that influenza C was a significant respiratory pathogen during the winter of 2014–2015 in Lancaster, we confirm previous observations of seropositivity in the majority of the population. (170 words).

Nasopharyngeal metagenomic deep sequencing data, Lancaster, UK, 2014-2015

Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken from volunteers attending a general medical practice and a general hospital in Lancaster, UK, and at Lancaster University, in the winter of 2014–2015. 51 swabs were selected based on high RNA yield and allocated to deep sequencing pools as follows: patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; asthmatics; adults with no respiratory symptoms; adults with feverish respiratory symptoms; adults with respiratory symptoms and presence of antibodies against influenza C; paediatric patients with respiratory symptoms (2 pools); adults with influenza C infection (2 pools), giving a total of 9 pools. Illumina sequencing was performed, with data yields per pool in the range of 345.6 megabases to 14 gigabases after removal of reads aligning to the human genome. The data were deposited in the Sequence Read Archive at NCBI, and constitute a resource for study of the viral, bacterial and fungal metagenome of the human nasopharynx in healthy and diseased states and comparison with other metagenomic studies on the human respiratory tract.

Sequence Variation in Multidrug-Resistant Plasmid pLUH01, Isolated from Human Nasopharyngeal Swabs

Three variants of the multidrug-resistant plasmid pLUH01 were assembled by deep sequencing from nasopharyngeal swabs. All have a 21-bp deletion in the RS14515 hypothetical gene. ABSTRACT Three variants of the multidrug-resistant plasmid pLUH01 were assembled by deep sequencing from nasopharyngeal swabs. All have a 21-bp deletion in the RS14515 hypothetical gene. Variants 1 through 3 have 2, 6, and 3 nucleotide substitutions, respectively, compared to the pLUH01 reference genome. We named the new plasmid variants pLUH01/Lancaster/2015/1 to pLUH01/Lancaster/2015/3.

Erratum:Influenza C in Lancaster, UK, in the winter of 2014-2015

Scientific Reports 7: Article number: 46578; published online: 13 April 2017; updated: 26 May 2017 The original version of this Article incorrectly included the following text in the Methods section: “Statistical analyses on volunteers and ELISAs, BAM files and reference genomes for genome assemblies, genome fragments too short for inclusion in GenBank, BEAST inputs and outputs, TempEst inputs and outputs and pipeline Perl scripts, are available from: doi://10.

Genome Sequence of Human Rhinovirus A22, Strain Lancaster/2015

ABSTRACT The genome of human rhinovirus A22 (HRV-A22) was assembled by deep sequencing RNA samples from nasopharyngeal swabs. The assembled genome is 8.7% divergent from the HRV-A22 reference strain over its full length, and it is only the second full-length genome sequence for HRV-A22. The new strain is designated strain HRV-A22/Lancaster/2015.

Genome Sequence of Human Papillomavirus 23 Strain HPV-23/Lancaster/2015

ABSTRACT The genome of human papillomavirus type 23 (HPV-23; family Papillomaviridae, genus Betapapillomavirus, species Betapapillomavirus 2, type 23) was assembled by deep sequencing from nasopharyngeal swabs. The assembled genome is 2.7% divergent over its full length from the single complete genome of HPV-23 in GenBank (accession no. U31781). We named the strain HPV-23/Lancaster/2015.

Influenza C incidence and herd immunity in Lancaster, UK, in the winter of 2014-2015

Influenza C is not included in the annual seasonal influenza vaccine, and has historically been regarded as a minor respiratory pathogen. However, recent work has highlighted its potential role as a cause of pneumonia in infants. We performed nasopharyngeal or nasal swabbing and/or serum sampling (n=148) in Lancaster, UK, over the winter of 2014-2015. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we estimated a seropositivity of 77%. By contrast, only 2 individuals, both asymptomatic adults, were influenza C-positive by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Deep sequencing of nasopharyngeal samples produced partial sequences for 4 genome segments in one of these patients. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the influenza C genome from this individual is evolutionarily distant to those sampled in recent years and represents a novel genome constellation, indicating that it is a product of a decades-old reassortment event. Although we find no evidence that influenza C was a significant respiratory pathogen during the winter of 2014-2015 in Lancaster, we confirm previous observations of seropositivity in the majority of the population. We calculate that this level of herd immunity would be sufficient to suppress epidemics of influenza C and restricts the virus to sporadic endemic spread.