Transformation Assays for HPV Oncoproteins

A cornerstone of human papillomavirus (HPV) research was the demonstration that those HPV types associated with the development of cervical cancer encode two potent oncoproteins, while those HPV types associated with only benign lesions do not. Thus both HPV-16 E6 and E7 will transform established rodent cells and will efficiently cooperate with other activated oncogenes in the transformation of primary rodent cells. In addition, the virus also encodes for the E5 oncoprotein, which also possesses a weaker transforming activity in established rodent cells. In this chapter we describe how the transforming activities of the HPV oncoproteins can be assessed.