Differential Expression and Activity of the Porcine Type I Interferon Family

Type I interferons (IFNs) are central to innate and adaptive immunity, and many have unique developmental and physiological functions. However, in most species, only two subtypes, IFN-alpha and IFN-beta, have been well studied. Because of the increasing importance of zoonotic viral diseases and the use of pigs to address human research questions, it is important to know the complete repertoire and activity of porcine type I IFNs. Here we show that porcine type I IFNs comprise at least 39 functional genes distributed along draft genomic sequences of chromosomes 1 and 10. These functional IFN genes are classified into 17 IFN-alpha subtypes, 11 IFN-delta subtypes, 7 IFN-omega subtypes, and single-subtype subclasses of IFN-alphaomega, IFN-beta, IFN-epsilon, and IFN-kappa. We found that porcine type I IFNs have diverse expression profiles and antiviral activities against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), with activity ranging from 0 to >10(5) U.ng(-1).ml(-1). Whereas most IFN-alpha subtypes retained the greatest antiviral activity against both PRRSV and VSV in porcine and MARC-145 cells, some IFN-delta and IFN-omega subtypes, IFN-beta, and IFN-alphaomega differed in their antiviral activity based on target cells and viruses. Several IFNs, including IFN-alpha7/11, IFN-delta2/7, and IFN-omega4, exhibited minimal or no antiviral activity in the tested target cell-virus systems. Thus comparative studies showed that antiviral activity of porcine type I IFNs is virus- and cell-dependent, and IFN-alphas are positively correlated with induction of MxA, an IFN-stimulated gene. Collectively, these data provide fundamental genomic information for porcine type I IFNs, information that is necessary for understanding porcine physiological and antiviral responses.