Interspecies Papillomavirus Type Infection and a Novel Papillomavirus Type in Red Ruffed Lemurs ().

The are a family of vertebrate-infecting viruses of oncogenic potential generally thought to be host species- and tissue-specific. Despite their phylogenetic relatedness to humans, there is a scarcity of data on papillomaviruses (PVs) in speciose non-human primate lineages, particularly the lemuriform primates. (black-and-white ruffed lemurs) and (red ruffed lemurs), two closely related species comprising the genus, are critically endangered with large global captive populations. Varecia variegata papillomavirus (VavPV) types -1 and -2, the first PVs in lemurs with a fully identified genome, were previously characterized from captive saliva. To build upon this discovery, saliva samples were collected from captive with the following aims: (1) to identify PVs shared between and and (2) to characterize novel PVs in to better understand PV diversity in the lemuriform primates. Three complete PV genomes were determined from samples. Two of these PV genomes share 98% L1 nucleotide identity with VavPV2, denoting interspecies infection of by VavPV2. This work represents the first reported case of interspecies PV infection amongst the strepsirrhine primates. The third PV genome shares <68% L1 nucleotide identity with that of all PVs. Thus, it represents a new PV species and has been named Varecia rubra papillomavirus 1 (VarPV1). VavPV1, VavPV2, and VarPV1 form a new clade within the family, likely representing a novel genus. Future work diversifying sample collection (i.e., lemur host species from multiple genera, sample type, geographic location, and wild populations) is likely to uncover a world of diverse lemur PVs.