Synthesis of Human Interferon β1 in Escherichia coliInfected by a Lambda Phage Recombinant containing a Human Genomic Fragment

Abstract

DNA from a human adult was fragmented by partial digestion with restriction endonuclease EcoRI and cloned in λ Charon 4A. Clone C15, with a human DNA insert of 17 × 10³ bases, was identified as containg a gene for the fibroblast, interferon, interferon β₁. Restriction mapping shows that this gene, located on a 1840‐base EcoRI fragment, is not interrupted by introns. Moreover, we show that this human genomic DNA fragment is able to direct the synthesis of active human interferon β₁ in Escherichia coli. Interferon activity of up to 7 × 10⁶ U/1 was recovered from phage lysates by chromatography on CiBacron blue–Sepharose, and had the same immunological properties and species specificity as interferon produced by human fibroblasts.