Abstract
Until a few years ago the polyomavirus family (Polyomaviridae) included a dozen viruses identified in avian and mammalian hosts. Two of these, the JC and BK-polyomaviruses isolated a long time ago, are known to infect humans and cause severe illness in immunocompromised hosts. Since 2007 an unprecedented number of eight novel polyomaviruses were discovered in humans. Among them are the KI- and WU-polyomaviruses identified in respiratory samples, the Merkel cell polyomavirus found in skin carcinomas and the polyomavirus associated with trichodysplasia spinulosa, a skin disease of transplant patients. Another four novel human polyomaviruses were identified, HPyV6, HPyV7, HPyV9 and the Malawi polyomavirus, so far not associated with any disease. In the same period several novel mammalian polyomaviruses were described. This review summarizes the recent developments in studying the novel human polyomaviruses, and touches upon several aspects of polyomavirus virology, pathogenicity, epidemiology and phylogeny.
Highlights
The polyomaviruses have been recognized as a separate virus family (Polyomaviridae) consisting of several species since 1999
In order to detect free, non-integrated, Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) genomes on the skin, rolling-circle amplification (RCA) was performed on forehead swab samples of healthy individuals
Some contigs showed the highest homology with lymphotrophic polyomavirus (LPyV) and after filling the contig sequence gaps by designing additional primers, a virus genome was found that coincided with Human polyomavirus 9 (HPyV9) (Sauvage et al, 2011)
Summary
The polyomaviruses have been recognized as a separate virus family (Polyomaviridae) consisting of several species since 1999 Before that time they formed the genus Polyomavirus in the family Papovaviridae that contained the papillomaviruses, polyomaviruses and the simian vacuolating agent 40 (SV40). Nowadays, the latter virus forms the namesake species that is designated the polyomavirus type species (prototype) as listed in the ICTV 9th Report (Norkin et al, 2012). The polyomaviruses will be termed according to their species names and abbreviations mentioned in the pending 2011 ICTV taxonomy proposal regarding the family Polyomaviridae, as presented in a recent publication on the subject (Johne et al, 2011). These will be termed according to their provisional names given in their first publication, respectively
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