We report here the identification and characterization of a protein, ERIS, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) IFN stimulator, which is a strong type I IFN stimulator and plays a pivotal role in response to both non–self-cytosolic RNA and dsDNA. ERIS (also known as STING or MITA) resided exclusively on ER membrane. The ER retention/retrieval sequence RIR was found to be critical to retain the protein on ER membrane and to maintain its integrity. ERIS was dimerized on innate immune challenges. Coumermycin-induced ERIS dimerization led to strong and fast IFN induction, suggesting that dimerization of ERIS was critical for self-activation and subsequent downstream signaling.
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