Reconstruction of microbial haplotypes by integration of statistical and physical linkage in scaffolding

Abstract DNA sequencing technologies provide unprecedented opportunities to analyze within-host evolution of microorganism populations. Often, within-host populations are analyzed via pooled sequencing of the population, which contains multiple individuals or ‘haplotypes’. However, current next-generation sequencing instruments, in conjunction with single-molecule barcoded linked-reads, cannot distinguish long haplotypes directly. Computational reconstruction of haplotypes from pooled sequencing has been attempted in virology, bacterial genomics, metagenomics and human genetics, using algorithms based on either cross-host genetic sharing or within-host genomic reads. Here we describe PoolHapX, a flexible computational approach that integrates information from both genetic sharing and genomic sequencing. We demonstrated that PoolHapX outperforms state-of-the-art tools tailored to specific organismal systems, and is robust to within-host evolution. Importantly, together with barcoded linked-reads, PoolHapX can infer whole-chromosome-scale haplotypes from 50 pools each containing 12 different haplotypes. By analyzing real data, we uncovered dynamic variations in the evolutionary processes of within-patient HIV populations previously unobserved in single position-based analysis.