Some of the genes that were most increased in the Il21r KO lung at both time points are known to be regulated by type I and type II IFNs, including multiple members of the Gbp (Gbp1, Gbp2, Gbp3, Gbp4, Gbp6, Gbp8, Gbp10) and Ifi (Ifi44, Ifi45, Ifit1, Ifit2, Ifit3) families (Figure 5B and Supplementary file 3), which mediate responses to bacterial and viral infections (Berry et al., 2010; Yamamoto et al., 2012). This evidence concerns the gene IFIT2 and viral infectious disease.