Molecular methods for identification and characterization of novel papillomaviruses.
Papillomaviruses (PV) are a remarkably heterogeneous family of small DNA viruses that infect a wide variety of vertebrate species and are etiologically linked with the development of various neoplastic changes of the skin and mucosal epithelia. Based on nucleotide similarity, PVs are hierarchically classified into genera, species and types. Novel human PV (HPV) types are given a unique number only