Human interferon regulatory factor-1 gene and its promoter sequences revealed by population-based complete gene sequencing

Interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1) plays important roles in host immunity, cell proliferation and apoptosis. The current GenBank sequence for human IRF-1 (accession number: L05072) was derived from a human placenta DNA library and reported in 1992. In one recent population-based sequence study, we observed consistent discrepancies between our IRF-1 sequence data and GenBank reference sequences suggesting that, current IRF-1 reference sequence was not representative for all populations. By complete gene sequencing, we obtained a representative full-length IRF-1 sequence from a single subject. Compared to submission L05072, our population-based data contains: 35 nucleotide additions, 8 nucleotide removals and another 12 nucleotide replacements. A single nucleotide difference was observed in the IRF-1 promoter sequence compared to GenBank sequence (X53095). These changes were confirmed in 350 Kenyans and 28 non-African donors. The accuracy of a reference sequence is crucial for downstream genetic and functional studies and this study provides more complete and accurate data on the sequence of the human IRF-1 gene and its immediate promoter region.