Figure 1.

Alignment of MmuPV1 E6 protein to cancer associated HPV E6 proteins. Amino acid sequence alignment of the MmuPV1 E6 protein with E6 proteins encoded by notable cancer associated HPVs including the high-risk α-HPV16 and HPV18, the EV-associated HPVs 5, 8, and 38, and the cutaneous γ-HPV-197. The positions of the four C-X-X-C (C, cysteine; X, any amino acid) motifs which bind Zn²⁺ amino acid sequence in MmuPV1 E6 are conserved with the HPV E6 proteins (highlighted in purple). MmuPV1 E6 does not contain the PDZ binding domain present in the high-risk mucosal HPV E6 proteins (highlighted in green). A number of amino acids are conserved between MmuPV1 and all the HPV genomes (highlighted in grey). A number of amino acids are conserved between the cutaneous HPV E6 proteins and MmuPV1 E6 as predicted as MmuPV1 is phylogenetically more closely related to the cutaneous HPVs (highlighted in yellow). There was a single instance where an amino acid in MmuPV1 E6 was exclusively shared with the high-risk mucosal HPV E6 proteins (highlighted in teal and asterisk above). A critical amino acid for LXXLL motif binding in MmuPV1 is indicated with the arrow.