Characterization of papillomaviruses in African Lions (Panthera leo): A Look at Tanzania

Abstract

Research into the characterization of papillomaviruses is a growing field that has yielded valuable results for the human species in the form of treatments such as vaccines. Other species, such as the Felidae family, have yet to receive as much characterization as human papillomavirus (HPV). Particularly, reports of FPV for the African lion (Panthera leo) species is nonexistent which this project attempted to resolve with a characterization of papillomavirus in this species. To this end, samples were collected from African lions in Serengeti National Park for characterization. The L1 sequence of these samples were amplified using PCR and cleaned before undergoing phylogenetic and distance analysis to determine any potential variation in the reference sequence. The results of this study have identified three novel papillomavirus types in the African lion species. For the types identified, it is proposed that they be classified under “Panthera leo Papillomavirus” of the Lambdapapillomavirus genus, abbreviated as “PlePV”.