Dear all,
 
some time ago I asked the community for info about genes that are
important for animal, or more specifically, vertebrate immmune defense
vs. (RNA) viruses. First of all, there is a huge variety of "candidates"
of genes and mechanisms but only few are studied in context of natural
variation. Moreover there is no synthesizing work on that issue. For
fields like evolutionary genetics, ecological immunity or host-pathogen
biology it would be highly interesting, though, to sum up the current
knowledge from some model systems, and use this info in non-model
systems.

I personally think it is worth while writing a review on that issue and
publishing it to the scientific community. If there is interest in this
action by some of you who feel experienced in these issues please le me
know (robert.kraus@wur.nl).

For now, here is a condensed list of suggestions that I got. All of
these are suggested to be starting points. The actual screening of the
literature may be some nice work of its own (see comment on the need for
a proper review above...):

- RNAi
http://www.current-biology.com/content/article/abstract?uid=3DPIIS09609822
06012085 
http://download.cell.com/pdfs/0092-8674/PIIS0092867407009774.pdf 

- The immune repertoir of the sea urchin

Dev Biol. 2006 Dec 1;300(1):349-65. Epub 2006 Sep 3.
The immune gene repertoire encoded in the purple sea urchin genome.
Hibino T, Loza-Coll M, Messier C, Majeske AJ, Cohen AH, Terwilliger DP,
Buckley
KM, Brockton V, Nair SV, Berney K, Fugmann SD, Anderson MK, Pancer Z,
Cameron RA,
Smith LC, Rast JP.

- APOBEC3: Langlois, M. A., and M. S. Neuberger.  2008.  Human APOBEC3G
can restrict retroviral infection in avian cells and acts independently
of both UNG and SMUG1. Journal Of Virology 82:4660-4664.

- There are around 2000 immune related genes in the human genome which
are prime 
candidates for your list. A search trough Pubmed and Web of science
should pull 
functional infection/expression, association and knockout studies.
Genome 
websites/databases will be yet another good resource. Although this is
an 
exhaustive effort, there will still be many player left out because we
simply 
do not know a majority of the genes that are involved in viral infection
and 
progression. 
An interesting point is that, some genes (such as mitochondrial and
other 
energy metabolism genes) which expected to have no anti viral properties
show 
up as important players depending on the type of viral infection.

- Jeurissen, S. H. M., A. G. Boonstra-Blom, S. O. Al-Garib, L. Hartog,
and G. Koch.  2000.  Defence mechanisms against viral infection in
poultry: A review. Veterinary Quarterly 22:204-208.

- MacDonald, M. R. W., S. M. Veniamin, X. Guo, J. Xia, D. A. Moon, and
K. E. Magor.  2007.  Genomics of antiviral defenses in the duck, a
natural host of influenza and hepatitis B viruses. Cytogenetic And
Genome Research 117:195-206.

robert.kraus@wur.nl