Interleukin 15 (IL-15) is a novel cytokine whose biological activities
are similar to those of interleukin 2 (IL-2). The genomic sequence of
human IL-15 has been isolated based on its sequence homology,vith a c
DNA clone encoding human IL-15. The human sequence is 14968 bp in leng
th and includes all six protein-coding exons and five introns. The loc
ation of the introns in the human sequence is identical to their posit
ions in the murine IL-15 gene. The same is true for the overall size o
f the gene, which was estimated to be at least 32 kb. Using Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR) with gene-specific primers on a panel of human/r
odent hybrid cell DNAs, as well as by fluorescence in situ hybridizati
on the human IL-15 gene was mapped to chromosome 4 region q25-35. (C)
1996 Academic Press Limited