Genetic characterization of the Capra hircus papillomavirus: A novel close-to-root artiodactyl papillomavirus

The healthy skin of a seven-year-old female goat (Capra hircus) was sampled with a cotton tip swab. Total genomic DNA was extracted from the sample and subjected to multiply primed rolling-circle amplification (RCA). Restriction analysis showed that the complete genome of a papillomavirus was amplified, measuring approximately 7600 bp in length. The Capra hircus papillomavirus (ChPV-1) genome was cloned from this rolling-circle amplification product, and the complete nucleotide sequence was determined. The ChPV-1 genome counts 7542 bp, and contains the typical papillomaviral open reading frames (ORFs). Based on a concatenated alignment of the E1, E2, L1 and L2 open reading frames of ChPV-1 and 54 other animal and human papillomavirus types, a neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree was constructed. In this tree ChPV-1 clusters with BPV-3, -4 and -6. Pairwise nucleotide sequence alignments of the L1 open reading frame of ChPV-1 with its closest relatives showed less than 60% similarity, placing the ChPV-1 in a novel genus.