Fig. 6

Schematic diagram of evolving virus-host interactions on the cervix. After infection (left), virus-virus (middle) and virus-host (right) interactions based on the principles of competitive exclusion and clonal evolution of cancer are illustrated [34–40]. Gause’s law of competitive exclusion states that between two competing species, the species with the slightest advantage will ultimately dominate [34, 35]. The deep sequencing results of this study corroborated this phenomenon in the virome with loss of diversity and gain of dominance by carcinogenic HPVs as LSIL progressed to HSIL. Furthermore, the predominantly monotypic, carcinogenic virome observed in HSIL may be attributed to monoclonal expansion of host cells with genome-integrated HPV DNA [36–38]. Carc, carcinogenic; HPV, Human papillomavirus; Not Class, not classifiable; Poss Carc, possibly carcinogenic; Prob Not Carc, probably not carcinogenic