Genomic structure of NKG5, a human NK and T cell-specific activation gene

• Published in: Immunogenetics (New York) Vol. 37; no. 2; p. 102
• Main Authors: Houchins, J P, Kricek, F, Chujor, C S, Heise, C P, Yabe, T, McSherry, C, Bach, F H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 1993
• Subjects: Alternative Splicing; Amino Acid Sequence; Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte - genetics; Base Sequence; DNA; Humans; Killer Cells, Natural - metabolism; Lymphocyte Activation - genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Receptors, Immunologic; Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; Restriction Mapping; RNA, Messenger - genetics; T-Lymphocytes - metabolism
• ISSN: 0093-7711
• DOI: 10.1007/BF00216832

We reported previously the isolation of a cDNA clone, designated NKG5, encoding a secreted protein that is expressed only in natural killer and T cells and is strongly upregulated upon cell activation. In this report we have isolated the NKG5 gene from a human placental genomic library and sequenced the gene and two kilobases of 5'-flanking DNA. Comparison with the cDNA sequence reveals that the NKG5 gene consists of five exons and four introns. Intron 1 contains a DNA segment that was reported to occur as an exon in 519, a closely related cDNA clone that was isolated from a T-cell library. This result indicates that NKG5 and 519 are alternative splicing products of a single gene. The 5'-flanking region of the NKG5 gene was analyzed for homology with the promoter regions of cytokines and other activation-induced genes showing lymphocyte-specific expression. Several segments displaying sequence similarity were identified. We also identified numerous sequence elements that have strong similarity to known binding sites for transcriptional regulatory proteins including T cell-specific and activation-specific regulatory factors. These findings are consistent with the cell-specific expression and the tight regulatory control that is observed for the NKG5 gene.