VIRUS-RESISTANCE GENES: THE MOUSE MODEL.

Resumo

Human and animals differ widely in their responses to virus infections. Viruses may induce barely discernible symptoms in some of them and severe, life-threatening illness in others. Evidence is accumulating that genetic background is one of the major factors involved, thus, identifying genes that control the response to virus infection is a crucial step in elucidating how they might affect the pathophysiological processes underlying the severity of the disease induced.  In this review, it’s illustrated how mouse-virus systems are being used to identify candidate virus-resistance genes, and how they provide the probes to detect functional homologues of resistance genes that are shared by rodent and other species.