Inducer-responsive expression of the cloned human interferon beta 1 gene introduced into cultured mouse cells

A hybrid plasmid was constructed from pSV2-Ecogpt (Mulligan and Berg, 1981) and the cloned 1.8 kilobase chromosomal DNA segment which contains the human interferon (HIFN-beta 1) gene and its flanking sequences. Cultured mouse FM3A cells were transfected by the hybrid plasmid and several Ecogpt+ clones were selected. Southern blot analysis of the DNA from these mouse cell clones showed that two of them contained a few copies of the 1.8 kilobase human DNA. Synthesis of mRNA characteristic of the HIFN-beta 1 mRNA increased as measured by RNA blot analysis when those clones were treated with Newcastle disease virus or with poly(I):poly(C). In addition, the induced mouse cell clones gave rise to the synthesis of human IFN-beta 1. These results suggest the presence of a unique nucleotide sequence in the 1.8 kilobase DNA which is sufficient for the inducer-responsive expression of the human IFN-beta 1 gene.