Poxvirus IFN / Receptor Homologs Grant McFadden1,* and Richard Moyer2 1
The John P. Robarts Research Institute and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Western Ontario, 1400 Western Road, London, Ontario, N6G 2V4, Canada 2 Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, PO Box 100266, Gainesville, FL 32610-0266, USA * corresponding author tel: (519)663-3184, fax: (519)663-3847, e-mail:
[email protected] DOI: 10.1006/rwcy.2000.14015.
SUMMARY The discovery of extracellular poxvirus inhibitors of type I interferons in 1995 was made by direct inhibition studies, rather than by sequence homology analysis. In fact, the vaccinia virus (strain Western Reserve) prototype of this family, B18R, is more closely related to members of the Ig superfamily than to the cellular type I interferon rece