Genome-wide prediction of interferon family members of tree shrew and their molecular characteristics analysis

Interferons (IFNs) represent proteins with antiviral activities that are secreted from cells in response to a variety of stimuli. In addition to antiviral, antibacterial and anti-parasitic host-defense functions they are now also recognized as crucial regulators of cell proliferation, differentiation, survival and death as well as activators of specialized cell functions particularly in the immune system and play important roles in infectious and inflammatory diseases, autoimmunity and cancer. Tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri) were found to be susceptible to several human viruses and therefore are widely regarded as good models for analyzing mechanism of human diseases. In this report, we have forecasted the interferon family members of tree shrew from its genome mainly using the methods like Blast (whole genome shotgun sequence) and gene prediction. Our data show that tree shrew interferon system includes: type I IFN: α (five subtypes), β, ω, κ, ε, δ; type II IFN: γ; type III IFN: λ1, λ2/3. Furthermore, the predicted structures of α and λ have similar character with those of other mammals. However, there are some differences in cysteine position and N-glycosylation numbers between human and Tree shrew IFNs. These results provide fundamental basis for further molecular cloning and function analysis of tree shrew IFNs in future.