Viral proteins E1 and E2 are essential for transient human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA replication. E1 is a multifunctional protein which can bind DNA and complex with E2, has ATPase and helicase activities, and interacts with DNA polymerase alpha-primase. E2 is a transactivator-repressor protein, playing an important role in replication and transcriptional regulation. A series of deletion mutants of HPV-11 E1 were constructed and tested in functional assays to define those domains of HPV-11 E1 which are important for binding to the origin DNA and E2. The domain of HPV-11 E1 involved in binding to the origin was located between aa 186 and 649, and that for binding to E2 was between aa 346 and 649. Since E1 binds to the origin more efficiently in the presence of E2, we also mapped the DNA binding domain of E1 in the presence of E2, and found that when binding was enhanced, the region of E1 involved in binding was similar to that observed with E1 alone. The same deletion mutation constructs of E1 were subcloned into an expression vector for use in transient replication assays to study the effect of the deletions on the replication of the origin DNA in vivo and the data suggest that the C-terminal domain contains important functions for replication.