Molecular biology of human papillomavirus

The papillomavirus is at present considered to be an independent group of viruses, possibly an independent family. Human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause warts of the skin and mucosa, and is now widely recognized as an important etiologic factor of both benign and malignant tumors in the lower genital tract. In this paper the biological properties of HPV, including its genomic organization and the open reading frames, are described; the relationship between HPV and uterine cervical carcinoma, especially in regard to the role of the viral oncogenes E6 and E7, is discussed in detail.