Virology Commons^™

Analysis Of Human Papillomavirus Capsid Proteins: Insights Into Capsid Assembly, Willie A. Hughes

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Abstract:

Papillomaviruses (PVs) are double stranded (ds)-DNA viruses (~8-kbp), which infect mucosal and cutaneous epithelial cells from various mammalian species, causing tumors in both epithelial cell-types. During the late-phase, the capsid proteins (L1 and L2), are expressed to encapsidate the viral genome generating infectious virion particles required for PV. Natural PV infections produce morphologically homogenous progeny virions 55-nm in diameter. Transient transfection systems allow individual expression of the capsid proteins, which are able to produce low-levels of infectious virion-like particles (VLPs) and non-infectious VLPs that have the capacity to resemble and function as wild-type virions.

Results: The research herein …

Telomere-Related Factors And Human Papillomavirus Genome Maintenance, Adam Rogers

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are small DNA tumor viruses identified by their characteristic ability to replicate as a nuclear plasmid in mitotically active basal keratinocytes. A key characteristic of the HPV life cycle is the establishment of a stable maintenance phase wherein the virus replicates at low copy number, which likely occurs in cells expressing little to no E1 and E2. It is thought that HPV16 replicates in a once-per-cell-cycle manner during this portion of its life cycle and presumably interacts with host chromosome replication and maintenance factors to facilitate this replication. The adaptive radiation of papillomaviruses in response to changing …