The protein encoded by this gene is a cytokine important for B and T cell development. This cytokine and the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) form a heterodimer that functions as a pre-pro-B cell growth-stimulating factor. IL7 is found to be a cofactor for V(D)J rearrangement of the T cell receptor beta (TCRB) during early T cell development. This cytokine can be produced locally by intestinal epithelial and epithelial goblet cells, and may serve as a regulatory factor for intestinal mucosal lymphocytes. IL7 plays an essential role in lymphoid cell survival, and in the maintenance of naive and memory T cells. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms. Additional splice variants have been described but their presence in normal tissues has not been confirmed. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can be a potent inducer of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines which may defend against the infection, but may also mediate destructive lung injury. Elevated serum IL7 levels, together with several other circulating cytokines and chemokines, has been found to be associated with the severity of Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19). [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2020]
Transcription factors with Perturb-seq knockdown data for IL7. The Binding column indicates whether any binding evidence exists for this TF–gene pair (ChIP-seq or motif footprint peaks). The Mean coef is the average Perturb-seq regression coefficient across active gRNAs (positive = IL7 upregulated upon KD; negative = downregulated). The Outlier column indicates whether this gene is in the top or bottom 5% of all TF knockdown effects.
| TF | Mean coef | Binding | Outlier | TF→Gene link |
|---|
Open chromatin peaks (ATAC-seq) in the genomic neighbourhood of IL7, linked by TSS proximity or chromatin conformation (Multiome / HiCAR). Each element overlaps at least one TF ChIP-seq binding site — the TFs column shows how many distinct TFs bind that element.
| Accessibility | Element | Dist. to TSS | Link type | TFs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chr8:78,515,408–78,517,830 | 288.7 kb | Distal (>10kb) Multiome | 678 | |
| chr8:78,665,297–78,666,867 | 138.9 kb | Distal (>10kb) Multiome | 823 | |
| chr8:78,804,276–78,805,655 | 189 bp | At TSS Multiome | 746 |
Genomic view of the IL7 locus showing ATAC-seq accessibility and RNA-seq expression across the ESC → DE time course, together with TF binding peaks and element-to-TSS loop connections.