Isolation and structure of a human fibroblast interferon gene

Chimaeric plasmids containing double-stranded cDNA copies of mRNA induced in human fibroblasts by poly I . C were screened by an RNA selection method. A series of clones to which human fibroblast interferon mRNA selectively hybridized was identified. From the nucleotide sequence of the gene, the complete amino acid sequence of human fibroblast interferon was deduced. The protein is 166 amino acids long and is preceded by a 21-amino acid signal sequence.