Fig. 4.

Inspection of viral genome integrity. (a) Results of real-time PCRs performed on HPV18 DNA extracted from a sample resulted positive in total spermatozoa (sample 4) to determine the ratio between selected HPV regions and LCR. Reference gene was HBB locus. Data points represent means (three replicates for each target and experiments were carried out two times) with standard deviations. **P values <0.005. (b) From inside to the outside of the circle: (1) The circular dsDNA genome of HPV18 is shown. Viral open reading frames are depicted as orange arrows. Transcription and replication control region (LCR) is depicted as a blue rectangle. (2) RT-PCR amplicon locations are indicated. (3) Putative part of the viral genome deleted in sperms is also indicated in red.