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Natural killer cells

New role for killer gene identified

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 4, page 86 (2004)Cite this article

The NKG2 receptors are a family of lectin-like molecules expressed by NK cells that include NKG2D, which is functional as a homodimer, and NKG2A, NKG2C and NKG2E, which form heterodimers with CD94. Koike et al. set out to study which genes were preferentially expressed by NKT cells compared with conventional T cells. Not unsurprisingly, a subset of the genes were NK-cell receptors, including NKG2A, NKG2D and NK1.1. In addition, a new clone with a putative protein sequence indicative of CD94 and the NKG2 family was identified, and named NKG2I. However, NKG2I is in fact identical to KLRE1 — a lectin-like NK-cell receptor described in a study by Westgaard et al. and previously published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Koike et al. found that NKG2I was highly expressed by NK cells and sequence analysis showed that the C-type lectin domain of NKG2I had 40% homology with CD94 and NKG2D, indicating that its structure might be similar to these molecules. Surprisingly, NKG2I lacked any signalling motifs or positively charged residues in its putative transmembrane region, which are characteristics of the NKG2 family, and showed little similarity to other family members in its putative ligand-binding domain, indicating that it is likely to interact with unique ligands.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Koike, J. et al. Bone marrow allograft rejection mediated by a novel murine NK receptor, NKG2I. J. Exp. Med. 199, 137–143 (2004)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Westgaard, I. H. et al. The lectin-like receptor KLRE1 inhibits natural killer cell cytotoxicity. J. Exp. Med. 197, 1551–1561 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wilhelm, B. T. & Mager, D. L. Identification of a new murine lectin-like gene in close proximity to CD94. Immunogenetics 55, 53–56 (2003)

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Authors
  1. Karen Honey
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Honey, K. New role for killer gene identified. Nat Rev Immunol 4, 86 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1303

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1303

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