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