Classification of papillomaviruses (PVs) based on 189 PV types and proposal of taxonomic amendments

Hans Ulrich Bernard, Robert D. Burk, Zigui Chen, Koenraad van Doorslaer, Harald zur Hausen, Ethel Michele de Villiers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1335 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present an expansion of the classification of the family Papillomaviridae, which now contains 29 genera formed by 189 papillomavirus (PV) types isolated from humans (120 types), non-human mammals, birds and reptiles (64, 3 and 2 types, respectively). To accommodate the number of PV genera exceeding the Greek alphabet, the prefix "dyo" is used, continuing after the Omega-PVs with Dyodelta-PVs. The current set of human PVs is contained within five genera, whereas mammalian, avian and reptile PVs are contained within 20, 3 and 1 genera, respectively. We propose standardizations to the names of a number of animal PVs. As prerequisite for a coherent nomenclature of animal PVs, we propose founding a reference center for animal PVs. We discuss that based on emerging species concepts derived from genome sequences, PV types could be promoted to the taxonomic level of species, but we do not recommend implementing this change at the current time.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)70-79
Number of pages10
JournalVirology
Volume401
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Family
  • Genus
  • Nomenclature
  • Papillomavirus
  • Reference center
  • Species
  • Strain
  • Taxonomy
  • Type

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Virology

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