Immunity Related GTPase Family, Q (IRGQ)

Autophagy is a fundamental biological process that enables cells to autodigest their own cytosol during starvation and other forms of stress. It has a growing spectrum of acknowledged roles in immunity, aging, development, neurodegeneration, and cancer biology. An immunological role of autophagy was first recognized with the discovery of autophagy’s ability to sanitize the cellular interior by killing intracellular microbes. Since then, the repertoire of autophagy’s roles in immunity has been vastly expanded to include a diverse but interconnected portfolio of regulatory and effector functions. IRGC and IRGQ genes on human chromosome 19 are syntenic with and likely orthologous to their murine counterparts, Irgc and Irgq. Mouse Irgc and Irgq on the chromosome 7 are unambiguously syntenic with the human genes IRGC and IRGQ on human chromosome 19.