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The phylogenetic origins of natural killer receptors and recognition: relationships, possibilities, and realities

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Abstract

Natural killer (NK) cells affect a form of innate immunity that recognizes and eliminates cells that are infected with certain viruses or have undergone malignant transformation. In mammals, this recognition can be mediated through immunoglobulin- (Ig) and/or lectin-type NK receptors (NKRs). NKR genes in mammals range from minimally polymorphic single-copy genes to complex multigene families that exhibit high levels of haplotypic complexity and exhibit significant interspecific variation. Certain single-copy NKR genes that are present in one mammal are present as expanded multigene families in other mammals. These observations highlight NKRs as one of the most rapidly evolving eukaryotic gene families and likely reflect the influence of pathogens, especially viruses, on their evolution. Although well characterized in human and mice, cytotoxic cells that are functionally similar to NK cells have been identified in species ranging from birds to reptiles, amphibians and fish. Although numerous receptors have been identified in non-mammalian vertebrates that share structural relationships with mammalian NKRs, functionally defining these lower vertebrate molecules as NKRs is confounded by methodological and interpretive complexities. Nevertheless, several lines of evidence suggest that NK-type function or its equivalent has sustained a long evolutionary history throughout vertebrate species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Barb Pryor for editorial assistance and Dr. Martin Flajnik for invaluable input. The authors are supported by funds from the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI057559 to GWL and JAY and R01 AI23337 to GWL).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences and Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 4700 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA

    Jeffrey A. Yoder

  2. Department of Pediatrics, USF/ACH Children’s Research Institute, University of South Florida College of Medicine, 140 7th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Gary W. Litman

  3. Department of Molecular Genetics, All Children’s Hospital, 501 6th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Gary W. Litman

  4. H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 Magnolia Drive, Tampa, FL, 33612, USA

    Gary W. Litman

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  1. Jeffrey A. Yoder
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Correspondence to Gary W. Litman.

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Yoder, J.A., Litman, G.W. The phylogenetic origins of natural killer receptors and recognition: relationships, possibilities, and realities. Immunogenetics 63, 123–141 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-010-0506-4

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