Genetic footprinting of 15-nucleotide insertion library in hepatitis C virus genome by next-generation sequencing

We generated a transposon insertion library that contains mutants with 15-nucleotide insertions randomly distributed across the entire hepatitis C virus genome. Using a genetic footprinting approach, we passaged the library in hepatic cells, recovered passaged virus pools, and used Illumina nucleotide sequencing to simultaneously assay the abundance of mutant viruses in each pool.