title: Equus asinus papillomavirus (EaPV1) provides new insights into equine papillomavirus diversity.
abstract: We detected a novel papillomavirus (EaPV1) from healthy skin and from sun associated cutaneous lesions of an Asinara (Sardinia, Italy) white donkey reared in captivity in a wildlife recovery centre. The entire genome of EaPV1 was cloned, sequenced, and characterised. Genome is 7467 bp long, and shows some characteristic elements of horse papillomaviruses, including a small untranslated region between the early and late regions and the lack of the retinoblastoma tumour suppressor binding domain LXCXE in E7. Additionally, a typical E6 ORF is missing. EaPV1 DNA was detected in low copies in normal skin of white and grey donkeys of the Asinara Island, and does not transform rodent fibroblasts in standard transformation assays. Pairwise nucleotide alignments and phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated E1-E2-L1 amino acid sequences revealed the highest similarity with the Equine papillomavirus type 1. The discovery of EaPV1, the prototype of a novel genus and the first papillomavirus isolated in donkeys, confirms a broad diversity in Equidae papillomaviruses. Taken together, data suggest that EaPV1 is a non-malignant papillomavirus adapted to healthy skin of donkeys.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lecis
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tore
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Veterinarie, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, via Tolara di sopra 50, 40064 Ozzano Emilia, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scagliarini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Antuofermo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dedola
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cacciotto
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Dore
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coradduzza
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gallina
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Veterinarie, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, via Tolara di sopra 50, 40064 Ozzano Emilia, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Battilani
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Anfossi
authors.affiliation: Centro Fauna Bonassai, Olmedo, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muzzeddu
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chessa
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pittau
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, via Vienna 2, 07100 11 Sassari, Italy. Electronic address: alberti@uniss.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alberti
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018397:Equidae / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012867:Skin / Q000821:virology
keywords: Asinara white donkey; Equine papillomaviruses; Evolution; Genome; Skin; Viral diversity