Family of human alpha-interferon-like sequences

An interferon-alpha-like sequence was isolated from a human genomic library by hybridization with a 15-base oligonucleotide. The sequence also showed homology to alpha-interferon and was most closely related to the leukocyte interferon-M gene fragment. The original isolate cross-hybridized to a family of sequences, 10 of which were isolated as clones. Some of these sequences were located within a few kilobases of alpha-interferon genes, consistent with our assignment of several members of the family to human chromosome 9 which also has the beta 1- and alpha-interferon genes.