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. 2015 Jul 21;16(8):802–809. doi: 10.1038/ni.3212

Figure 1. Genomic organization of the type III IFNs in mice and humans.

Figure 1

The mouse Ifnl loci are found on chromosome 7 and contain the functional genes Ifnl2 and Ifnl3, and the pseudogenes Ifnl1-P1 and Ifnl1-P2. The duplication of the mouse locus occurred independently from that of the human IFNL locus, so mouse Ifnl2 and Ifln3 cannot be considered true orthologs of human IFNL2 and IFNL3. In humans the IFNL loci are located on the long arm of chromosome 19. In humans IFNL1, IFNL2 and IFNL3 are functional genes, and IFNL4 is a pseudogene in part of the population owing to the SNP rs368234815. Additionally this locus encodes the pseudogenes INFL1P1 and IFNL4P1. SNPs associated with HCV clearance rates are indicated with either their common names or the consequence of the variation in parentheses. The genes IFNL2, IFNL3, IFNL4 and IFNL4P1 were probably generated by a duplication event, whereby the region containing IFNL3 and IFNL4 was duplicated to generate IFNL4P1 and IFNL2, or vice versa. The recombination site localizes between IFNL4 and IFNL4P1. Exons are shown in green; arrows indicate the direction of transcription. Pseudogenes are indicated by gray boxes with the symbol Ψ and are not drawn to scale (except for IFNL4P1). All human pseudogenes contain introns and are thus not the result of retro-transposition.