Novel immune-type receptor genes

• Published in: Immunological reviews Vol. 181; no. 1; pp. 250 - 259
• Main Authors: Litman, Gary W., Hawke, Noel A., Yoder, Jeffrey A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copenhagen Munksgaard International Publishers 01.06.2001; Blackwell
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Fishes - genetics; Fishes - immunology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fundamental immunology; General aspects; Genetic Variation; Genome; Immunopathology; Medical sciences; Models, Biological; Molecular Structure; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Receptors, Immunologic - chemistry; Receptors, Immunologic - genetics; Sphoeroides nephelus; Human; Gene; Molecular structure; Multigene family; Review; Novel immune-type receptor gene; Genome; Biological receptor
• ISSN: 0105-2896; 1600-065X
• DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-065X.2001.1810121.x

Novel immune‐type receptor (NITR) genes, which initially were identified in the Southern pufferfish (Spheroides nephelus), encode products which consist of an extracellular variable (V) and V‐like C2 (V/C2) domain, a transmembrane region, and a cytoplasmic tail, which typically possesses an immunoreceptor tyrosine‐based inhibition motif (ITIM). Multiple NITR genes have been identified in close, contiguous chromosomal linkage. The V regions of NITRs resemble prototypic forms defined for immunoglobulin (Ig) and T‐cell antigen receptor (TCR), are present in multiple families and exhibit regionalized variation in sequence, which also occurs in Ig and TCR. Comparisons of exons encoding transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions of multiple NITRs suggest that exon shuffling has factored in the diversification of the NITR gene complex. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) NITRs exhibit many of these characteristics. NITRs that have been identified in additional species of bony fish demonstrate additional variation in the number of extracellular domains as well as in the presence of intramembranous charged residues, cytoplasmic tails and ITIMs. The presence in NITRs of V regions that are related closely to those found in Ig and TCR, as well as regulatory motifs and other structural features that are characteristic of immune inhibitory receptors encoded at the leukocyte receptor cluster, suggests that the NITRs are representative of an integral stage in the evolution of innate and adaptive immune function. This research was supported by grants AI23338 to GWL and GM20231 to JAY from the National Institutes of Health as well as a grant from The Pediatric Cancer Foundation, Inc. to GWL.