Human cytomegalovirus strain diversity and dynamics reveal the donor lung as a major contributor after transplantation

In this retrospective study, we combined Illumina deep sequence and long amplicon PacBio sequence data from 163 specimens of 50 lung transplant recipients with recurrent HCMV DNAemia, to analyse within-patient human cytomegalovirus strain diversity and dynamics. Further, ten pre-transplant lung tissues were Illumina deep sequenced to study the donor lung viral strain diversity.This study points out major contributors to viral diversity post transplantation.