Abstract
The immunity-related GTPases (IRG proteins) are one of the strongest early resistance systems against intracellular pathogens. The IRG gene family contains 21 copies arranged as tandem gene clusters on two chromosomes in the C57BL/6 mouse genome but has been reduced to only two copies in humans: IRGC and IRGM. IRGC is not involved in immunity, but the human IRGM gene plays a role in autophagy-targeted destruction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (BCG) and Salmonella typhimurium. Variant IRGM haplotypes have been associated with increased risk for Crohn’s disease and correlated with differential expression of IRGM transcripts. This article reviews in detail the studies performed on human samples, in vitro, and in sequence analyses that provide evidence for the unusual evolutionary history of the IRGM locus and the important role of the IRGM gene in autophagy and Crohn’s disease in response to pathogenesis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Collazo CM, Yap GS, Sempowski GD, Lusby KC, Tessarollo L, Woude GFV, Sher A, Taylor GA (2001) Inactivation of LRG-47 and IRG-47 reveals a family of interferon {gamma}-inducible genes with essential, pathogen-specific roles in resistance to infection. J Exp Med 194:181–188
Taylor G, Collazo C, Yap G, Nguyen K, Gregorio T, Taylor L, Eagleson B, Secrest L, Southon E, Reid S, Tessarollo L, Bray M, McVicar D, Komschlies K, Young H, Biron C, Sher A, Vande Woude G (2000) Pathogen-specific loss of host resistance in mice lacking the IFN-gamma-inducible gene IGTP. PNAS 97:751–755
MacMicking J, Taylor GA, McKinney J (2003) Immune control of tuberculosis by IFN-gamma-inducible LRG-47. Science 302:654–659
Taylor GA (2004) p47 GTPases: regulators of immunity to intracellular pathogens. Nat Rev Immunol 4:100–109
Bernstein-Hanley I, Coers J, Balsara ZR, Taylor GA, Starnbach MN, Dietrich WF (2006) The p47 GTPases Igtp and Irgb10 map to the Chlamydia trachomatis susceptibility locus Ctrq-3 and mediate cellular resistance in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:14092–14097
Macmicking JD (2005) Immune control of phagosomal bacteria by p47 GTPases. Curr Opin Microbiol 8:74–82
Taylor GA (2007) IRG proteins: key mediators of interferon-regulated host resistance to intracellular pathogens. Cell Microbiol 9:1099–1107
Howard J (2008) The IRG proteins: a function in search of a mechanism. Immunobiology 213:367–375
Zhao YO, Rohde C, Lilue JT, Konen-Waisman S, Khaminets A, Hunn JP, Howard JC (2009) Toxoplasma gondii and the immunity-related GTPase (IRG) resistance system in mice: a review. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 104:234–240
Bekpen C, Hunn JP, Rohde C, Parvanova I, Guethlein L, Dunn DM, Glowalla E, Leptin M, Howard JC (2005) The interferon-inducible p47 (IRG) GTPases in vertebrates: loss of the cell autonomous resistance mechanism in the human lineage. Genome Biol 6:R92
Shenoy AR, Kim BH, Choi HP, Matsuzawa T, Tiwari S, MacMicking JD (2007) Emerging themes in IFN-gamma-induced macrophage immunity by the p47 and p65 GTPase families. Immunobiology 212:771–784
Ghosh A, Uthaiah R, Howard J, Herrmann C, Wolf E (2004) Crystal structure of IIGP1: a paradigm for interferon-inducible p47 resistance GTPases. Mol Cell 15:727–739
Leipe DD, Wolf YI, Koonin EV, Aravind L (2002) Classification and evolution of P-loop GTPases and related ATPases. J Mol Biol 317:41–72
Boehm U, Guethlein L, Klamp T, Ozbek K, Schaub A, Fütterer A, Pfeffer K, Howard JC (1998) Two families of GTPases dominate the complex cellular response to interferon-γ. J Immunol 161:6715–6723
Bekpen C, Marques-Bonet T, Alkan C, Antonacci F, Leogrande MB, Ventura M, Kidd JM, Siswara P, Howard JC, Eichler EE (2009) Death and resurrection of the human IRGM gene. PLoS Genet 5:e1000403
Chang YF, Imam JS, Wilkinson MF (2007) The nonsense-mediated decay RNA surveillance pathway. Annu Rev Biochem 76:51–74
Conti E, Izaurralde E (2005) Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay: molecular insights and mechanistic variations across species. Curr Opin Cell Biol 17:316–325
Singh SB, Davis AS, Taylor GA, Deretic V (2006) Human IRGM induces autophagy to eliminate intracellular mycobacteria. Science 313:1438–1441
Parkes M, Barrett JC, Prescott NJ, Tremelling M, Anderson CA, Fisher SA, Roberts RG, Nimmo ER, Cummings FR, Soars D, Drummond H, Lees CW, Khawaja SA, Bagnall R, Burke DA, Todhunter CE, Ahmad T, Onnie CM, McArdle W, Strachan D, Bethel G, Bryan C, Lewis CM, Deloukas P, Forbes A, Sanderson J, Jewell DP, Satsangi J, Mansfield JC, Cardon L, Mathew CG (2007) Sequence variants in the autophagy gene IRGM and multiple other replicating loci contribute to Crohn’s disease susceptibility. Nat Genet 39:830–832
Fisher SA, Tremelling M, Anderson CA, Gwilliam R, Bumpstead S, Prescott NJ, Nimmo ER, Massey D, Berzuini C, Johnson C, Barrett JC, Cummings FR, Drummond H, Lees CW, Onnie CM, Hanson CE, Blaszczyk K, Inouye M, Ewels P, Ravindrarajah R, Keniry A, Hunt S, Carter M, Watkins N, Ouwehand W, Lewis CM, Cardon L, Lobo A, Forbes A, Sanderson J, Jewell DP, Mansfield JC, Deloukas P, Mathew CG, Parkes M, Satsangi J (2008) Genetic determinants of ulcerative colitis include the ECM1 locus and five loci implicated in Crohn’s disease. Nat Genet 40(6):710–712
Franke A, Balschun T, Karlsen TH, Hedderich J, May S, Lu T, Schuldt D, Nikolaus S, Rosenstiel P, Krawczak M, Schreiber S (2008) Replication of signals from recent studies of Crohn’s disease identifies previously unknown disease loci for ulcerative colitis. Nat Genet 40:713–715
Roberts RL, Hollis-Moffatt JE, Gearry RB, Kennedy MA, Barclay ML, Merriman TR (2008) Confirmation of association of IRGM and NCF4 with ileal Crohn’s disease in a population-based cohort. Genes Immun 9:561–565
Latiano A, Palmieri O, Cucchiara S, Castro M, D’Inca R, Guariso G, Dallapiccola B, Valvano MR, Latiano T, Andriulli A, Annese V (2009) Polymorphism of the IRGM gene might predispose to fistulizing behavior in Crohn’s disease. Am J Gastroenterol 104:110–116
Weersma RK, Stokkers PC, Cleynen I, Wolfkamp SC, Henckaerts L, Schreiber S, Dijkstra G, Franke A, Nolte IM, Rutgeerts P, Wijmenga C, Vermeire S (2009) Confirmation of multiple Crohn’s disease susceptibility loci in a large Dutch–Belgian cohort. Am J Gastroenterol 104:630–638
Palomino-Morales RJ, Oliver J, Gomez-Garcia M, Lopez-Nevot MA, Rodrigo L, Nieto A, Alizadeh BZ, Martin J (2009) Association of ATG16L1 and IRGM genes polymorphisms with inflammatory bowel disease: a meta-analysis approach. Genes Immun 10:356–364
McCarroll SA, Huett A, Kuballa P, Chilewski SD, Landry A, Goyette P, Zody MC, Hall JL, Brant SR, Cho JH, Duerr RH, Silverberg MS, Taylor KD, Rioux JD, Altshuler D, Daly MJ, Xavier RJ (2008) Deletion polymorphism upstream of IRGM associated with altered IRGM expression and Crohn’s disease. Nat Genet 40:1107–1112
Craddock N, Hurles ME, Cardin N, Pearson RD, Plagnol V, Robson S, Vukcevic D et al (2010) Genome-wide association study of CNVs in 16,000 cases of eight common diseases and 3,000 shared controls. Nature 464:713–720
Intemann CD, Thye T, Niemann S, Browne EN, Amanua Chinbuah M, Enimil A, Gyapong J, Osei I, Owusu-Dabo E, Helm S, Rusch-Gerdes S, Horstmann RD, Meyer CG (2009) Autophagy gene variant IRGM −261 T contributes to protection from tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis but not by M. africanum strains. PLoS Pathog 5:e1000577
Prescott NJ, Dominy KM, Kubo M, Lewis CM, Fisher SA, Redon R, Huang N, Stranger BE, Blaszczyk K, Hudspith B, Parkes G, Hosono N, Yamazaki K, Onnie CM, Forbes A, Dermitzakis ET, Nakamura Y, Mansfield JC, Sanderson J, Hurles ME, Roberts RG, Mathew CG (2010) Independent and population-specific association of risk variants at the IRGM locus with Crohn’s disease. Hum Mol Genet 19:1828–1839
Maeda S, Hsu LC, Liu H, Bankston LA, Iimura M, Kagnoff MF, Eckmann L, Karin M (2005) Nod2 mutation in Crohn’s disease potentiates NF-kappaB activity and IL-1beta processing. Science 307:734–738
Kobayashi KS, Chamaillard M, Ogura Y, Henegariu O, Inohara N, Nunez G, Flavell RA (2005) Nod2-dependent regulation of innate and adaptive immunity in the intestinal tract. Science 307:731–734
Kuhn R, Lohler J, Rennick D, Rajewsky K, Muller W (1993) Interleukin-10-deficient mice develop chronic enterocolitis. Cell 75:263–274
Zhang G, Huang Y, Yan K, Li W, Fan X, Liang Y, Sun L, Li H, Zhang S, Gao M, Du W, Yang S, Liu J, Zhang X (2006) Diverse phenotype of Brooke–Spiegler syndrome associated with a nonsense mutation in the CYLD tumor suppressor gene. Exp Dermatol 15:966–970
Costello CM, Mah N, Hasler R, Rosenstiel P, Waetzig GH, Hahn A, Lu T, Gurbuz Y, Nikolaus S, Albrecht M, Hampe J, Lucius R, Kloppel G, Eickhoff H, Lehrach H, Lengauer T, Schreiber S (2005) Dissection of the inflammatory bowel disease transcriptome using genome-wide cDNA microarrays. PLoS Med 2:e199
Cadwell K, Liu JY, Brown SL, Miyoshi H, Loh J, Lennerz JK, Kishi C, Kc W, Carrero JA, Hunt S, Stone CD, Brunt EM, Xavier RJ, Sleckman BP, Li E, Mizushima N, Stappenbeck TS, HWt V (2008) A key role for autophagy and the autophagy gene Atg16l1 in mouse and human intestinal Paneth cells. Nature 456:259–263
Zhang ZD, Frankish A, Hunt T, Harrow J, Gerstein M (2010) Identification and analysis of unitary pseudogenes: historic and contemporary gene losses in humans and other primates. Genome Biol 11:R26
Deininger PL, Batzer MA (1999) Alu repeats and human disease. Mol Genet Metab 67:183–193
Price AL, Eskin E, Pevzner PA (2004) Whole-genome analysis of Alu repeat elements reveals complex evolutionary history. Genome Res 14:2245–2252
Svensson AC, Raudsepp T, Larsson C, Di Cristofano A, Chowdhary B, La Mantia G, Rask L, Andersson G (2001) Chromosomal distribution, localization and expression of the human endogenous retrovirus ERV9. Cytogenet Cell Genet 92:89–96
Lower R, Lower J, Kurth R (1996) The viruses in all of us: characteristics and biological significance of human endogenous retrovirus sequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:5177–5184
Bannert N, Kurth R (2006) The evolutionary dynamics of human endogenous retroviral families. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 7:149–173
Patience C, Wilkinson DA, Weiss RA (1997) Our retroviral heritage. Trends Genet 13:116–120
Costas J, Naveira H (2000) Evolutionary history of the human endogenous retrovirus family ERV9. Mol Biol Evol 17:320–330
Ling J, Pi W, Bollag R, Zeng S, Keskintepe M, Saliman H, Krantz S, Whitney B, Tuan D (2002) The solitary long terminal repeats of ERV-9 endogenous retrovirus are conserved during primate evolution and possess enhancer activities in embryonic and hematopoietic cells. J Virol 76:2410–2423
Di Cristofano A, Strazullo M, Longo L, La Mantia G (1995) Characterization and genomic mapping of the ZNF80 locus: expression of this zinc-finger gene is driven by a solitary LTR of ERV9 endogenous retroviral family. Nucleic Acids Res 23:2823–2830
Di Cristofano A, Strazzullo M, Parisi T, La Mantia G (1995) Mobilization of an ERV9 human endogenous retroviral element during primate evolution. Virology 213:271–275
Stahl EA, Dwyer G, Mauricio R, Kreitman M, Bergelson J (1999) Dynamics of disease resistance polymorphism at the Rpm1 locus of Arabidopsis. Nature 400:667–671
Tian D, Araki H, Stahl E, Bergelson J, Kreitman M (2002) Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:11525–11530
Tian D, Traw MB, Chen JQ, Kreitman M, Bergelson J (2003) Fitness costs of R-gene-mediated resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature 423:74–77
Staeheli P, Grob R, Meier E, Sutcliffe J, Haller O (1988) Influenza virus-susceptible mice carry Mx genes with a large deletion or a nonsense mutation. Mol Cell Biol 8:4518–4523
Haller O, Acklin M, Staeheli P (1987) Influenza virus resistance of wild mice: wild-type and mutant Mx alleles occur at comparable frequencies. J Interferon Res 7:647–656
Jin H, Yamashita T, Ochiai K, Haller O, Watanabe T (1998) Characterization and expression of the Mx1 gene in wild mouse species. Biochem Genet 36:311–322
Hunn JP, Koenen-Waisman S, Papic N, Schroeder N, Pawlowski N, Lange R, Kaiser F, Zerrahn J, Martens S, Howard JC (2008) Regulatory interactions between IRG resistance GTPases in the cellular response to Toxoplasma gondii. EMBO J 27:2495–2509
Martens S, Parvanova I, Zerrahn J, Griffiths G, Schell G, Reichmann G, Howard JC (2005) Disruption of Toxoplasma gondii parasitophorous vacuoles by the mouse p47-resistance GTPases. PLoS Pathog 1:e24
Papic N, Hunn JP, Pawlowski N, Zerrahn J, Howard JC (2008) Inactive and active states of the interferon-inducible resistance GTPase, Irga6, in vivo. J Biol Chem 283:32143–32151
Feng CG, Zheng L, Lenardo MJ, Sher A (2009) Interferon-inducible immunity-related GTPase Irgm1 regulates IFN gamma-dependent host defense, lymphocyte survival and autophagy. Autophagy 5:232–234
Feng CG, Weksberg DC, Taylor GA, Sher A, Goodell MA (2008) The p47 GTPase Lrg-47 (Irgm1) links host defense and hematopoietic stem cell proliferation. Cell Stem Cell 2:83–89
Hunn JP, Howard J (2010) The mouse resistance protein, Irgm1 (LRG-47): a regulator or an effector of pathogen defense? PLoS Pathog 6(7):e1001008
Nathan C, Shiloh MU (2000) Reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates in the relationship between mammalian hosts and microbial pathogens. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:8841–8848
Fang FC (2004) Antimicrobial reactive oxygen and nitrogen species: concepts and controversies. Nat Rev Microbiol 2:820–832
Pfefferkorn ER (1984) Interferon gamma blocks the growth of Toxoplasma gondii in human fibroblasts by inducing the host cells to degrade tryptophan. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81:908–912
Robinson CM, Shirey KA, Carlin JM (2003) Synergistic transcriptional activation of indoleamine dioxygenase by IFN-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. J Interferon Cytokine Res 23:413–421
Schaible UE, Kaufmann SH (2004) Iron and microbial infection. Nat Rev Microbiol 2:946–953
Gutierrez MG, Master SS, Singh SB, Taylor GA, Colombo MI, Deretic V (2004) Autophagy is a defense mechanism inhibiting BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis survival in infected macrophages. Cell 119:753–766
Roach JC, Glusman G, Rowen L, Kaur A, Purcell MK, Smith KD, Hood LE, Aderem A (2005) The evolution of vertebrate Toll-like receptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:9577–9582
Nelson DE, Virok DP, Wood H, Roshick C, Johnson RM, Whitmire WM, Crane DD, Steele-Mortimer O, Kari L, McClarty G, Caldwell HD (2005) Chlamydial IFN-gamma immune evasion is linked to host infection tropism. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:10658–10663
Jiang Z, Tang H, Ventura M, Cardone MF, Marques-Bonet T, She X, Pevzner PA, Eichler EE (2007) Ancestral reconstruction of segmental duplications reveals punctuated cores of human genome evolution. Nat Genet 39:1361–1368
Barrett JC, Hansoul S, Nicolae DL, Cho JH, Duerr RH, Rioux JD, Brant SR, Silverberg MS, Taylor KD, Barmada MM, Bitton A, Dassopoulos T, Datta LW, Green T, Griffiths AM, Kistner EO, Murtha MT, Regueiro MD, Rotter JI, Schumm LP, Steinhart AH, Targan SR, Xavier RJ, Libioulle C, Sandor C, Lathrop M, Belaiche J, Dewit O, Gut I, Heath S, Laukens D, Mni M, Rutgeerts P, Van Gossum A, Zelenika D, Franchimont D, Hugot JP, de Vos M, Vermeire S, Louis E, Cardon LR, Anderson CA, Drummond H, Nimmo E, Ahmad T, Prescott NJ, Onnie CM, Fisher SA, Marchini J, Ghori J, Bumpstead S, Gwilliam R, Tremelling M, Deloukas P, Mansfield J, Jewell D, Satsangi J, Mathew CG, Parkes M, Georges M, Daly MJ (2008) Genome-wide association defines more than 30 distinct susceptibility loci for Crohn’s disease. Nat Genet 40:955–962
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to Jonathan C. Howard for his critical discussions and suggestions during the preparation of this manuscript, which helped us to refine our discussions. We thank Stefan Fuss for carefully editing the text, and we are also indebted to Hicham Bouabe and Can Alkan for their help and specific discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is published as part of the Special Issue on Autophagy.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bekpen, C., Xavier, R.J. & Eichler, E.E. Human IRGM gene “to be or not to be”. Semin Immunopathol 32, 437–444 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-010-0224-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-010-0224-x