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Updated: Jul 25, 2026

A High Resolution Method to Monitor Phosphorylation-dependent Activation of IRF3
Published on: January 24, 2016
Induction of endogenous IFN-alpha and IFN-beta genes by a regulatory transcription factor, IRF-1
T Fujita1, Y Kimura, M Miyamoto
1Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Osaka University, Japan.
Abstract:
Interferons (IFNs) have an important role in cell growth and differentiation. The most well-known function of IFNs is their antiviral activity; viral infections result in induction of the transcription of the IFN-alpha and IFN-beta genes. Recently we isolated the gene encoding a transcription factor, IRF-1, that may play a part in the induction of IFN genes. Interestingly, the IRF-1 gene itself is virus-inducible, suggesting the importance of de novo production of IRF-1 in IFN gene induction. Here we show that high-level expression of the cloned mouse IRF-1 gene in monkey COS cells results in the induction of endogenous IFN-alpha and IFN-beta genes without viral stimulation. Furthermore, we demonstrate the induction of these genes by an IRF-1/yeast GAL4 chimaeric transcription factor. This may be the first demonstration of the specific induction of silent chromosomal genes by transfection of a single transcription factor gene in mammalian cells.
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