title: Interferon-alpha 2 variants in the human genome.
abstract: Variants of human leukocyte interferon alpha 2 (IFN-alpha 2a, alpha 2b, and alpha 2c) differ from each other by changes in their coding regions at nucleotide positions 137 and 170. As a result of these nucleotide variations, the DNA sequences of the three variants can be distinguished by selective restriction enzyme analysis. Human genomic DNA obtained from over 28,000 normal healthy individuals was used as templates in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the human IFN-alpha 2 gene sequence. The resulting PCR products were analyzed with restriction nucleases to identify the specific IFN-alpha 2 variant sequences present in the genomic DNA of the population examined. The results show that IFN-alpha 2b was detected as the predominant species and IFN-alpha 2c as a very minor species (< 0.1%). The IFN-alpha 2a gene was not detected in this population.
authors.affiliation: Interferon Sciences, Inc., New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brissette
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Testa
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000235:genetics*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012016:Reference Values; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D007370:Interferon Type I; D004247:DNA