The enigmatic origin of papillomavirus protein domains

Puustusmaa, Mikk; Kirsip, Heleri; Gaston, Kevin; Abroi, Aare

Abstract

Almost a century has passed since the discovery of papillomaviruses. A few decades of research have given a wealth of information on the molecular biology of papillomaviruses. Several excellent studies have been performed looking at the long- and short-term evolution of these viruses. However, when and how papillomaviruses originate is still a mystery. In this study, we systematically searched the (sequenced) biosphere to find distant homologs of papillomaviral protein domains. Our data show that, even including structural information, which allows us to find deeper evolutionary relationships compared to sequence-only based methods, only half of the protein domains in papillomaviruses have relatives in the rest of the biosphere. We show that the major capsid protein L1 and the replication protein E1 have relatives in several viral families, sharing three protein domains with Polyomaviridae and Parvoviridae. However, only the E1 replication protein has connections with cellular organisms. Most likely, the papillomavirus ancestor is of marine origin, a biotope that is not very well sequenced at the present time. Nevertheless, there is no evidence as to how papillomaviruses originated and how they became vertebrate and epithelium specific

Citation

Puustusmaa, M., Kirsip, H., Gaston, K., & Abroi, A. (2017). The enigmatic origin of papillomavirus protein domains. Viruses, 9(9), Article 240. https://doi.org/10.3390/v9090240

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 19, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Aug 23, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Deposit Date: Aug 28, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 28, 2018
• Journal: Viruses
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: 240
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/v9090240
• Keywords: Origin, Papillomaviruses, Protein domains, Structural domains
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1037558
• Publisher URL: http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/9/9/240
• Contract Date: Aug 28, 2018