In this study, we evaluated the utility of mNGS for characterizing HAdV infection in Hubei, China. Twenty-five HAdVs samples were sequenced using the NextSeq 550 and GenoLab M sequencing platforms. We determined the evolutionary relationships of the strains and potential recombination events through molecular typing and genome characterization.
We observed comparable performance between the two platforms in terms of data yield, GC content, duplication rate, and human ratio. Notably, GenoLab M showed remarkable advantages with respect to Q20 and Q30 percentage compared with NextSeq 550. Subsequently, we assessed the de novo assembly results of HAdVs originating from GenoLab M by comparing them with those originating from NextSeq 550. In most samples, contig numbers, N50, N90, maximum contig, and genome coverage were comparable between GenoLab M and NextSeq 550. For GenoLab M, 22/25 samples showed high alignments with greater than 90%, for NextSeq 550, the ratio was 21/25.
The findings demonstrated interplatform consistency in data quality, assembly results, and microbial annotation, indicating the potential of GenoLab M as an alternative to NextSeq 550 in mNGS for HAdV characterization and surveillance. Meanwhile, high-throughput GenoLab M sequencing could obtain accurate mutation information and correct errors, resulting in an increased understanding of HAdV genotypes and recombination.
