Contraction of the type I IFN locus and unusual constitutive expression ofIFN-αin bats

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1518240113
• Publication Date: 2016-02-23T04:23:41Z
• Authors: Peng Zhou; Mary Tachedjian; James W. Wynne; Victoria Boyd; Jie Cui; Ina Smith; Christopher Cowled; Justin H. J. Ng; Lawrence Mok; Wojtek P. Michalski; Ian H. Mendenhall; Gilda Tachedjian; Lin-Fa Wang; Michelle L. Baker
• Keywords: Immunoblotting; Molecular Sequence Data; bats; bat; Cell Line; Evolution, Molecular; Hendra Virus; 03 medical and health sciences; Chiroptera; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Animals; Humans; Animalia; Chordata; innate immunity; 0303 health sciences; Multidisciplinary; Base Sequence; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Gene Expression Profiling; bat immunology; Chromosome Mapping; Interferon-alpha; Sequence Analysis, DNA; interferon; Biodiversity; 3. Good health; HEK293 Cells; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Interferon Type I; Mammalia

SignificanceHere we provide what is, to our knowledge, the first gene map of the type I IFN region of any bat species with the sequence of the type I IFN locus of the Australian black flying fox,Pteropus alecto.The bat IFN locus contains fewer IFN genes compared with any other mammal sequenced to date, including only threeIFN-αgenes. We also demonstrate that batIFN-αgenes are constitutively expressed in unstimulated bat tissues and cells and that their expression is unaffected by viral infection. This unusual pattern ofIFN-αexpression has not been described in any other species to our knowledge and has important implications for the role of innate immunity in the ability of bats to coexist with viruses in the absence of disease.