Molecular variants of human papillomavirus: impact on viral life cycle and persistence

人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）是一种DNA病毒，感染身体的涂层组织，如皮肤。已经确定了200多种hpv类型，其中的一部分可以将健康组织从良性状态“转化”为恶性状态。这种情况只发生在大约一百名感染者中的一名，这与HPV在宿主体内持续存在的能力有关。特别是一种转化型HPV比其他类型更容易持续存在，这可能是由其DNA基因组中的“变异”引起的。这种HPV在世界范围内也是最普遍的。通过分析这种特定类型的变异在病毒生命周期中的活动，我们将理解病毒变异在持久性中所起的作用。这一建议解决了病毒生物学的一个基本的中心主题。病毒变异通过影响病毒漂移和转移来驱动进化，以确保病毒后代的概念以前没有被测试过，并且可能会导致新的发现。

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a DNA virus that infects coating tissues of the body such as skin. More than 200 types have been identified and a subset of these HPVs can "transform" healthy tissue from a benign to a malignant state. This occurs only in approximately one of a hundred infected individuals and is related to the ability of HPV to persist in the host. In particular one HPV of the transforming types is more prone to persist than other types, which may be caused by "variants" in its DNA genome. This HPV is also most prevalent worldwide. By analyzing the activities of variants of this specific type during the viral life cycle we will comprehend the role viral variants play in persistence. This proposal addresses a basic, central theme of virus biology. The concept that viral variants drive evolution by impacting on viral drift and shift to ensure viral progeny has not been tested previously and will potentially lead to new discoveries.