A recombinant cottontail rabbit papillomavirus genome for ectopic expression of genes in cells infected with virus in vivo

► Deletion of the L2 gene is dispensable for tumor induction by CRPV DNA in rabbits. ► The antisense insertion of a major portion of L2 does not influence the efficiency of tumor induction. ► The replacement of the L2 gene with a eukaryotic expression cassette does not change tumor induction when combined with mutation of the L1 start codon.