title: Bovine interferon alpha genes. Structure and expression.
abstract: The bovine genome contains a gene family of interferon-alpha s (bIFN-alpha) that consists of at least five distinct members. Four of the bIFN-alpha genes isolated show a high degree of homology (97% in the nucleotide sequence and 93% in amino acid sequence). The overall homology in amino acid sequence of bIFN-alpha to human, murine, and rat IFNs-alpha is approximately 60%. Yet there are amino acid clusters (positions 28-41 and 118-146) which are highly conserved throughout the mammalian evolution and in which the overall homology can be as high as 86%. Within the C terminus conserved cluster there is a sequence containing 9 amino acids completely conserved in 16 mammalian IFNs-alpha and of these, 7 are also shared with a similar domain in some bacterial toxins, implying a common functional role for these domains. One of the genes, IFN-alpha C, was expressed in Escherichia coli. The purified bacterial IFN (specific activity, 2 X 10(8) units/mg) exhibited antiviral activity on bovine cells but no detectable activity was demonstrated on human and simian cells.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004926:Escherichia coli; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D007370:Interferon Type I