Method of increasing the function of an AAV vector

1. A method of increasing the packaging yield, transduction efficiency, and/or gene transfer efficiency of a parental AAV, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) comparing a parental AAV capsid sequence with a library of functional AAV capsid sequences in an alignment, wherein said library comprises at least three functional AAV capsids which are at least 85% identical over the full-length of the aligned vp1 sequences and which represent at least three different clades, wherein the library comprises at least two AAV sequences from each clade;

(b) identifying at least one singleton in the parental AAV capsid, said singleton being an amino acid residue in a position in the parental AAV capsid which differs from the amino acid in the corresponding position of the aligned functional AAV capsid sequences in the library all of which have the same amino acid residue in that position;

(c) altering the singleton in the parental AAV capsid to the amino acid located in the corresponding position in the functional AAV capsid sequences in the library to provide a modified AAV capsid sequence, and

(d) assessing the modified AAV for increased packaging yield, transduction efficiency, and/or gene transfer efficiency as compared to the parental AAV.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the parental AAV contains multiple singletons.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the parental AAV contains 2 to 4 singletons.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein step (c) is repeated at different singletons.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the parental AAV is altered by site directed mutagenesis of the codon for the variable amino acid.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the site directed mutagenesis is performed on the parental AAV carried on a plasmid backbone.

7. A method of increasing the packaging yield, transduction efficiency, and/or gene transfer efficiency of a parental AAV, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) comparing a parental AAV capsid sequence with a library of functional AAV capsid sequences in an alignment, wherein said library comprises at least three functional AAV capsids which are at least 85% identical over the full-length of the aligned vp1 sequences and which represent at least three different clades, wherein the library comprises at least 12 AAV sequences;

(b) identifying at least one singleton in the parental AAV capsid, said singleton being an amino acid residue in a position in the parental AAV capsid which differs from the amino acid in the corresponding position of the aligned functional AAV capsid sequences in the library all of which have the same amino acid residue in that position;

(c) altering the singleton in the parental AAV capsid to the amino acid located in the corresponding position in the functional AAV capsid sequences in the library to provide a modified AAV capsid sequence, and

(d) assessing the modified AAV for increased packaging yield, transduction efficiency, and/or gene transfer efficiency as compared to the parental AAV.

8. A method of increasing the packaging yield, transduction efficiency, and/or gene transfer efficiency of a parental AAV, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) comparing a parental AAV capsid sequence with a library of functional AAV capsid sequences in an alignment, wherein said library comprises at least two functional AAV capsids from each of at least three different clades, and wherein said sequences are at least 85% identical over the full-length of the aligned vp1 sequences;

(b) identifying at least one singleton in the parental AAV capsid, said singleton being an amino acid residue in a position in the parental AAV capsid which differs from the amino acid in the corresponding position of the aligned functional AAV capsid sequences in the library all of which have the same amino acid residue in that position;

(c) altering the singleton in the parental AAV capsid to the amino acid located in the corresponding position in the functional AAV capsid sequences in the library to provide a modified AAV capsid sequence, and

(d) utilizing the altered AAV to produce a viral vector having the protein sequence of the altered AAV.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the AAV viral vector of (d) has packaged in the capsid a transgene encoding a gene product under the control of regulatory sequences which direct expression of the product in a host cell.

10. The method according to claim 8 , where the alignment comprises four clades.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the alignment comprises five clades.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein AAV4 is excluded from the alignment.

13. The method according to claim 8 , wherein AAV5 is excluded from the alignment.