To expand our knowledge of the genomic diversity of human papillomaviruses (HPVs), we searched for new HPVs in squamous cell carcinomas of the skin (SCC) and seemingly HPV-negative, otherwise typically HPV-associated lesions. We describe the characterization of three novel HPV types. HPV109 was isolated from an SCC, HPV112 from a condyloma and HPV114 from a low-grade cervical lesion. Pairwise alignment of the L1 sequences classified HPV114 to genus alpha species 3, whereas HPV112 defined a new species in the genus gamma. HPV109 had uncertain classification because of a low and about equal similarity in the L1 gene (between 60% and 65%) to different genera. Type-specific real-time PCRs of cervical samples, a majority from women with low grade atypical cytology, (n=2856) and various cutaneous samples (n=538), found HPV114 in 1.7% (48/2856) of the genital samples, whereas both HPV109 and 112 were rare viruses found at high viral loads only in their index samples.
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