Genomic structure and chromosomal localization of the human interleukin 15 gene (IL-15).

Interleukin 15 (IL-15) is a novel cytokine whose biological activities are similar to those of interleukin 2 (IL-2). The genomic sequence of human IL-15 has been isolated based on its sequence homology with a cDNA clone encoding human IL-15. The human sequence is 14968 bp in length and includes all six protein-coding exons and five introns. The location of the introns in the human sequence is identical to their positions in the murine IL-15 gene. The same is true for the overall size of the gene, which was estimated to be at least 32 kb. Using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with gene-specific primers on a panel of human/rodent hybrid cell DNAs, as well as by fluorescence in situ hybridization the human IL-15 gene was mapped to chromosome 4 region q25-35.