Identification of Type III Interferon (IFN-lambda) in Chinese Goose: Gene Structure, Age- Dependent Expression Profile, and Antiviral Immune Characteristics In Vivo and In Vitro

摘要

Type III interferons (IFN-lambda 1/lambda 2/lambda 3, also known as IL-29/28A/28B, and IFN-lambda 4) are a recently discovered interferon group. In this study, we first identified the Chinese goose IFN-l (goIFN-lambda). The full-length sequence of goIFN-lambda was found to be 823 bp. There was only one open reading frame that contained 570 bp, and, encoded 189 amino acids. The predicted goIFN-lambda protein showed 78%, 67%, and 40% amino acid identity with duIFN-lambda, chIFN-lambda, and hIFN-lambda 3, respectively. The tissue distribution of goIFN-lambda existed as a parallel distribution with goIFNLR1 as its functional receptor, which was mainly expressed in epithelium-rich tissues, such as lung, gizzard, proventriculus, skin and pancreas, and immune tissues, such as harderian gland and thymus. Furthermore, the immunological characteristics studies of goIFN-lambda showed that there was a significant increase in the mRNA at the transcriptional level of goIFN-lambda after the peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with ploy (I: C) and ODN2006, and infected with Gosling plague virus (GPV). In vivo, the mRNA transcriptional level of goIFN-l increased nearly 20 times in the lung tissue and nearly 40 times in the pancreatic tissue after being artificially infected with H9N2 AIV. It is suggested that goIFN-lambda might play a pivotal role in the mucosal immune protection and antiviral defense.