Genome analysis of non-human primate polyomaviruses

Polyomaviruses have so far only been isolated from mammals and birds. Typical for all members of this family is their double-stranded genome of approximately 5000 base-pairs which can be divided into an early region encoding at least two functional proteins, the large and small tumor antigens, and a late region encompassing genes for the capsid proteins VP1 and VP2. During the last 10 years several novel polyomaviruses have been described in non-human primates and man. This review compares the non-human primate polyomavirus genomes that have been completely sequenced with each other and with the genomes of human polyomaviruses. We predict the presence of protein- and microRNA-encoding sequences. Our analyses demonstrate that several genetically distinct groups of non-human primate polyomaviruses exist, that different polyomaviruses can infect the same non-human primate species but that most of their proteins display highly similar domains and motifs, indicating conservation of key functions.