The role of genomic data in the discovery, annotation and evolutionary interpretation of the interferon-lambda family.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Type-I interferons, type-II interferons, and the IL-10 family are helical cytokines with similar three-dimensional folds. However, their homologous relationship is difficult to detect on the basis of sequence alone. We have previously described the discovery of the human type-III interferons (IFN lambda-1, -2, -3 or IL-29, IL-28A, IL-28B), which required a combination of manual and computational techniques applied to predicted protein sequences.

Principal findings

Here we describe how the use of gene structure analysis and comparative genomics enabled a more extensive understanding of these genes early in the discovery process. More recently, additional mammalian genome sequences have shown that there are between one and potentially nine copies of interferon lambd

SUBMITTER: Fox BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2654155 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature