1996 Volume 119 Issue 2 Pages 231-234
Interferon stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3) is a trimeric transcription factor activated on treatment of cells with interferon-α and β (type I IFNs). Upon stimulation, the regulatory subunits, p84/91 and p113, present in the cytoplasm are phosphorylated at specific tyrosine residues and assemble with the DNA binding subunit, ISGF3γ, into the active ISGF3 in the nucleus. Thus, ISGF3 plays a primary role in the transmission of a signal from the cell surface to the nucleus. In this report, we describe the cloning of a mouse eDNA encoding a polypeptide homologous to human ISGF3γ. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences revealed the middle region was significantly different between mouse and man. The mouse cDNA was shown to encode a functional ISGF3 subunit by means of an in vitro reconstitution assay. Furthermore, the locus of the ISGF3γ gene, designated as Isgf3g, was mapped to distal mouse chromosome 14 by linkage analysis using an intersubspecific backcross typing panel.
