Avian Interferon-Inducible Transmembrane Protein Family Effectively Restricts Avian Tembusu Virus Infection

Chen, Shilong; Wang, Long; Chen, Jieying; Zhang, Lanlan; Wang, Song; Goraya, Mohsan U.; Chi, Xiaojuan; Na, Yang; Shao, Wenhan; Yang, Zhou; Zeng, Xiancheng; Chen, Shaoying; Chen, Ji-Long

The interferon-inducible transmembrane proteins (IFITMs) are a family of small transmembrane proteins belonging to ISG superfamily and strongly induced by IFNs (Perreira et al., 2013) . The IFITM proteins are the distinct restriction factors known to block viral entry, including restriction of virus fusion with the late endosomal or lysosomal compartments and penetration into the cytoplasm (Diamond and Farzan, 2013; . It has been shown that gene cluster IFTIM1, 2, and 3, the immunerelated genes, are critically involved in immune defense against a broad variety of viruses, including influenza virus, dengue virus, filoviruses, coronavirus, hepatitis C virus, lyssaviruses, and West Nile virus (Brass et al., 2009; Huang et al., 2011; Lu et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2013; Wilkins et al., 2013) . Conversely, IFITMs have little or no effect on several other viruses, including human papillomavirus, human cytomegalovirus and adenovirus type 5, arenavirus, murine leukemia virus, and foot-and-mouth disease virus (Warren et al., 2013; Bailey et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2016) . Despite the progresses in understanding of IFITMmediated antiviral ability, host IFITM expression profiles in response to ATMUV infection are still not clear. Little is known about this immune-related ISG family in restricting ATMUV pathogenesis.