Lawn et al. (1981) identified the INFA17 gene, which they designated LEIF2C1. The deduced protein contains 189 amino acids. Savel'ev et al. (1986) cloned the interferon A gene. The deduced 189-amino acid protein contains a 23-amino acid leader sequence.

Lawn et al. (1981) determined that the coding region of the IFNA17 gene is contained within a single exon. The 5-prime upstream region contains a TATTTAA box.

The IFNA17 gene was positioned in the cluster of interferon genes on 9p22 by deletion mapping (Olopade et al., 1992). Lawn et al. (1981) determined that the IFNA14 and IFNA17 genes are 12 kb apart.