STRUCTURAL, FUNCTIONAL AND EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF THE 3-DIMENSIONAL CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE OF MURINE INTERFERON-BETA

The crystal structure of recombinant murine interferon-beta as elucida ted by Senda et al. (Proc. Jap. Acad. 66B: 77-80 (1990); EMBO J. 11: 3 193-3201 (1992)) appears to represent the basic structural framework o f all Type I interferons including interferons-beta and all subtypes o f interferons-alpha of various mammalian origin. Now the huge accumula ted data on the structure-activity relationship of Type I interferons using various chemical and genetic techniques can be systematically ev aluated in terms of the three-dimensional structure. Structural compar ison with other cytokines, for which three-dimensional structures have been established, including interferon-gamma and considerations on th e evolution of cytokines and cytokine receptors are also given.