Avian interferon regulatory factor (IRF) family reunion: IRF3 and IRF9 found.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) are a family of transcription factors with important functions in immunity. The genomes of most vertebrates encode ten IRF genes. IRF3 and IRF9 have key roles in interferon (IFN) induction and signaling. Most of our knowledge about the IFN pathways originates from the study of the mammalian IFN system, and the description of the corresponding avian components is not as complete. Both IRF3 and IRF9 were considered missing from the chicken genome and from the genomes of other avian species.

Results

Here we describe multiple avian IRF3 and IRF9 genes, all with difficult GC-rich sequence context that prevented their earlier characterization. IRF3 orthologs are narrowly distributed and are present in the avian infraclass Palaeognath

SUBMITTER: Ungrova L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12220609 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature