Transcriptome-wide analysis of a baculovirus using nanopore sequencing

Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) is a prototypic baculovirus infecting specific insects. AcMNPV contains a large double-stranded DNA genome encoding a complex transcriptome. This virus has a widespread application as a vector for the expression of heterologous proteins. Here, we present a dataset, derived from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing. We used both cDNA and direct RNA sequencing techniques. The dataset contains 520,310 AcMNPV and 1,309,481 host cell reads using the regular cDNA-sequencing method of ONT, whereas altogether 6,456 reads were produced by using direct RNA-sequencing. We also used a Cap-selection protocol for certain ONT samples, and obtained 2,568,669 reads by using this method. The raw reads were aligned to the AcMNPV reference genome (KM667940.1). Here, we openly released the ‘static’ and the dynamic transcript catalogue of AcMNPV. This dataset can be used for deep analyses of the transcriptomic and epitranscriptomic patterns of the AcMNPV and the host cell. The data can be also useful for the validation of different bioinformatics software packages and analysis tools.