A human papilloma virus type 11 transcript encoding an E1--E4 protein

Abstract

The human papilloma virus (HPV) associated with a genital wart (condyloma acuminatum) was determined to be type 11. The majority of the viral DNA molecules were monomeric circles present in the cells at high copy number, as demonstrated by one- and two-dimensional agarose gell electrophoretic separation followed by Southern blot analysis. A cDNA library in phage lambda gt11 was constructed from poly(A)-selected mRNA recovered from the tissue. Recombinant clones corresponding to the most abundant 1.2-kb viral mRNA species detected by Northern blot hybridization and by electron microscopic analysis of R loops were isolated and their nucleotide sequence was determined. Comparison to the prototype HPV-11 DNA sequence revealed that this message consisted of two exons. The promotor-proximal exon spanned nucleotides 716 through 847 and the distal exon included nucleotides 3325 through 4390 or 4392. The mRNAs were alternatively polyadenylated after either of these latter two sites, in both cases following a G and preceding a U residue. Fourteen or sixteen bases upstream from the poly(A) was the hexanucleotide AGUAAA, which apparently serves as the signal for cleavage and polyadenylation of the nascent message. The splice donor and acceptor sites conformed to the usual /GU. . .AG/pattern. The exons joined open reading frame (ORF) E1, which contributed the initiation codon and four additional triplets, to ORF E4, which specified 85 amino acids to encode a protein of 10,022 Da. The cDNA also contained the ORFs E5a and E5b toward the 3' end. The complete sequence of the cDNA revealed three single-base changes from the prototype HPV-11, two resulting in altered amino acids in E4. Neither affects the coding potential of the overlapping E2 ORF. The function of the E1--E4 protein is unknown.