Human papillomaviruses in Buschke-Löwenstein tumors: physical state of the DNA and identification of a tandem duplication in the noncoding region of a human papillomavirus 6 subtype.

Six Buschke-Löwenstein tumors, i.e., highly differentiated squamous cell tumors of the genital region, were shown to contain human papillomavirus 6 (HPV 6) or HPV 11 genomes. The viral DNA was found in an episomal state, including a very small fraction of circular oligomers. HPV 6a and HPV 6d genomes were cloned from two of the tumors. Comparison with HPV 6b, cloned from a benign genital wart (E. -M. de Villiers, L. Gissmann, and H. zur Hausen, J. Virol. 40:932-935, 1981) by restriction mapping and partial sequence analysis, revealed a very high degree of homology with the different HPV 6 subtypes. A tandem duplication of 459 base pairs within the noncoding region of the genome was found in the new subtype HPV 6d. This structural rearrangement in a region containing the putative control elements for early gene transcription might influence the biological potential of that virus. No evidence for rearrangement of this region was found in the HPV DNA from the five other tumors.