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. 1994 Mar;14(3):2170–2179. doi: 10.1128/mcb.14.3.2170

Mutant cell lines unresponsive to alpha/beta and gamma interferon are defective in tyrosine phosphorylation of ISGF-3 alpha components.

J E Loh 1, C Schindler 1, A Ziemiecki 1, A G Harpur 1, A F Wilks 1, R A Flavell 1
PMCID: PMC358577  PMID: 8114747

Abstract

The 84-, 91-, and 113-kDa proteins of the ISGF-3 alpha complex are phosphorylated on tyrosine residues upon alpha interferon (IFN-alpha) treatment and subsequently translocate to the nucleus together with a 48-kDa subunit. In this study, we investigated the presence and the functional status of ISGF-3 alpha subunits and Tyk-2 and JAK1 tyrosine kinases in mutant HeLa cells defective in the IFN-alpha/beta and -gamma response. Stable cell fusion analysis revealed a single complementation group among one class (class B) of mutants. The class B mutants contain detectable level of mRNA and proteins of the 84-, 91-, and 113-kDa proteins, but neither the protein nor mRNA is inducible by IFN-alpha or -gamma. The 91-kDa protein IFN-gamma-activated factor fails to be activated into a DNA-binding state after IFN-alpha or -gamma treatment. In addition, the 91-kDa protein is unable to localize in the nucleus after IFN-alpha and -gamma treatment, and the 113-kDa protein fails to translocate after IFN-alpha treatment. Immunoprecipitation studies document a failure of phosphorylation of the 84- or 91-kDa proteins after IFN-alpha or -gamma treatment. Similarly, no tyrosine-phosphorylated 113-kDa protein was detected after IFN-alpha treatment. The inability of class B mutants to phosphorylate the 84-, 91-, or 113-kDa protein on tyrosine residues correlated with the loss of biological response to IFN-alpha and -gamma. The genetic defect appears to be the absence of the tyrosine kinase JAK1. Our data therefore confirm a recent report that JAK1 plays a critical early signaling role for both IFN-alpha/beta and IFN-gamma systems.

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Selected References

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