After successful infection of a keratinocyte, the virus expresses E1 and E2 proteins, which are for replicating and maintaining the viral DNA as a circular episome. The viral oncogenes E6 and E7 promote cell growth by inactivating the tumor suppressor proteins p53 and pRb. Keratinocyte stem cells in the epithelial basement layer can maintain papillomavirus genomes for decades.[1]