Equus asinus Papillomavirus (EaPV1) provides new insights into equine papillomavirus diversity

We
detected
a
novel
papillomavirus
(EaPV1)
from
healthy
skin
and
from
sun
associated
cutaneous
lesions
of
an
Asinara
(Sardinia,
Italy)
white
donkey
reared
in
captivity
in
a
wildlife
recovery
centre.
The
entire
genome
of
EaPV1
was
cloned,
sequenced,
and
characterised.
Genome
is
7467
bp
long,
and
shows
some
characteristic
elements
of
horse
papillomaviruses,
including
a
small
untranslated
region
between
the
early
and
late
regions
and
the
lack
of
the
retinoblastoma
tumour
suppressor
binding
domain
LXCXE
in
E7.
Additionally,
a
typical
E6
ORF
is
missing.
EaPV1
DNA
was
detected
in
low
copies
in
normal
skin
of
white
and
grey
donkeys
of
the
Asinara
Island,
and
does
not
transform
rodent
fibroblasts
in
standard
transformation
assays.
Pairwise
nucleotide
alignments
and
phylogenetic
analyses
based
on
concatenated
E1-E2-L1
amino
acid
sequences
revealed
the
highest
similarity
with
the
Equine
papillomavirus
type
1.
The
discovery
of
EaPV1,
the
prototype
of
a
novel
genus
and
the
first
papillomavirus
isolated
in
donkeys,
confirms
a
broad
diversity
in
Equidae
papillomaviruses.
Taken
together,
data
suggest
that
EaPV1
is
a
non-malignant
papillomavirus
adapted
to
healthy
skin
of
donkeys.