Classification of papillomaviruses (PVs) based on 189 PV types and proposal of taxonomic amendments

TLDR

We propose standardizing animal papillomavirus names and establishing a reference center to support a coherent nomenclature. The authors extend the Papillomaviridae taxonomy by adding a “dyo” prefix for new genera, standardizing animal PV names, recommending a reference center, and discussing but postponing species-level promotion based on genome-derived concepts. The updated taxonomy now contains 29 genera and 189 PV types, with humans represented by five genera and other species distributed across 20, 3, and 1 genera for mammals, birds, and reptiles, respectively, and the authors note that genome‑based species concepts could elevate PV types to species status but defer this change.

Abstract

We present an expansion of the classification of the family Papillomaviridae, which now contains 29 genera formed by 189 papillomavirus (PV) types isolated from humans (120 types), non-human mammals, birds and reptiles (64, 3 and 2 types, respectively). To accommodate the number of PV genera exceeding the Greek alphabet, the prefix "dyo" is used, continuing after the Omega-PVs with Dyodelta-PVs. The current set of human PVs is contained within five genera, whereas mammalian, avian and reptile PVs are contained within 20, 3 and 1 genera, respectively. We propose standardizations to the names of a number of animal PVs. As prerequisite for a coherent nomenclature of animal PVs, we propose founding a reference center for animal PVs. We discuss that based on emerging species concepts derived from genome sequences, PV types could be promoted to the taxonomic level of species, but we do not recommend implementing this change at the current time.