The present invention provides a receptor protein specifically recognizing
bacterial DNA having an unmethylated CpG sequence, a genomic DNA encoding
it, an experimental animal model useful for examining responsiveness of a
host immune cell against a bacterial infectious disease. DNA encoding a
receptor protein specifically recognizing bacterial DNA having an
unmethylated CpG sequence is screened by BLAST search, a number of EST
clones having high homology with various TLRs is screened, these clones
are used as a probe to isolate a full-length cDNA from mouse macrophage
cDNA library, and the sequence of bases of the cDNA is analyzed to
confirm that it is TLR9 comprising a conserved regions such as LRR and
TIR regions, and then a knockout mouse is produced to confirm that TLR9
is a receptor protein of oligonucleotides having an unmethylated CpG
sequence of bacterial DNA.