Abstract
The stochastic expression of individual members of NK cell receptor gene families on subsets ofNKcells has attracted considerable interest in the transcriptional regulation of these genes. Each receptor gene can contain up to three separate promoters with distinct properties. The recent discovery that an upstream promoter can function as a probabilistic switch element in the Ly49 gene family has revealed a novel mechanism of variegated gene expression. An important question to be answered is whether or not the other NK cell receptor gene families contain probabilistic switches. The promoter elements currently identified in the Ly49, NKR-P1, CD94, NKG2A, and KIR gene families are described.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Brostjan C, Sobanov Y, Glienke J, Hayer S, Lehrach H, Francis F, Hofer E (2000) The NKG2 natural killer cell receptor family: comparative analysis of promoter sequences. Genes Immun 1:504–508
Bull C, Sobanov Y, Rohrdanz B, O’Brien J, Lehrach H, Hofer E (2000) The centromeric part of the human NK gene complex: linkage of LOX-1 and LY49L with the CD94/NKG2 region. Genes Immun 1:280–287
Carlyle JR, Martin A, Mehra A, Attisano L, Tsui FW, Zúñiga-Pflücker JC (1999) Mouse NKR-P1B, a novel NK1.1 antigen with inhibitory function. J Immunol 162:5917–5923
Carlyle JR, Michie AM, Furlonger C, Nakano T, Lenardo MJ, Paige CJ, Zúñiga-Pflücker JC (1997) Identification of a novel developmental stage marking lineage commitment of progenitor thymocytes. J Exp Med 186:173–182
Chan HW, Kurago ZB, Stewart CA, Wilson MJ, Martin MP, Mace BE, Carrington M, Trowsdale J, Lutz CT (2003) DNA methylation maintains allele-specific KIR gene expression in human natural killer cells. J Exp Med 197: 245–255
Chuang SS, Pham HT, Kumaresan PR, Mathew PA (2001) A prominent role for activator protein-1 in the transcription of the human 2B4 (CD244) gene in NK cells. J Immunol 166:6188–6195
Dorfman JR, Raulet DH (1998) Acquisition of Ly49 receptor expression by developing natural killer cells. J Exp Med 187:609–618
Gosselin P, Makrigiannis AP, Nalewaik R, Anderson SK (2000) Characterization of the Ly49I promoter. Immunogenetics 51:326–331
Held W, Kunz B, Lowin-Kropf B, van de Wetering M, Clevers H (1999) Clonal acquisition of the Ly49A NK cell receptor is dependent on the trans-acting factor TCF-1. Immunity 11:433–442
Held W, Clevers H, Grosschedl R (2003) Redundant functions of TCF-1 and LEF-1 during T and NK cell development, but unique role of TCF-1 for Ly49 NK cell receptor acquisition. Eur J Immunol 33:1393–1398
Heusohn F, Wirries G, Schmidt RE, Gessner JE (2002) The Pmed1 gene promoter of human FcγRIIIA can function as a NK/T cell-specific restriction element, which involves binding of Sp1 transcription factor. J Immunol 168: 2857–2864
Ioannidis V, Kunz B, Tanamachi DM, Scarpellino L, Held W (2003) Initiation and limitation of Ly-49A NK cell receptor acquisition by T cell factor-1. J Immunol 171:769–775
Kravitz RH, Grendell RL, Slukvin II, Golos TG (2001) Selective expression of NKG2-A and NKG2-C m RNAs and novel alternative splicing of 5′ exons in rhesus monkey decidua. Immunogenetics 53:69–73
Kubo S, Itoh Y, Ishikawa N, Nagasawa R, Mitarai T, Maruyama N (1993) The gene encoding mouse lymphocyte antigenLy-49: structural analysis and the 5′-flanking sequence. Gene 136:329–331
Kubo S, Nagasawa R, Nishimura H, Shigemoto K, Maruyama N (1999) ATF-2-binding regulatory element is responsible for the Ly49A expression inmurine T lymphoid line, EL-4. Biochim Biophys Acta 1444:191–200
Kubota A, Kubota S, Lohwasser S, Mager DL, Takei F (1999) Diversity of NK cell receptor repertoire in adult and neonatal mice. J Immunol 163:212–216
Kung SKP, Su R-C, Shannon J, Miller RG (1999) The NKR-P1B gene product is an inhibitory receptor on SJL/J NK cells. J Immunol 162:5876–5887
Kunz B, Held W (2001) Positive and negative roles of the trans-acting T cell factor-1 for the acquisition of distinct Ly-49 MHC class I receptors by NK cells. J Immunol 166:6181–6187
Lacorazza HD, Miyazaki Y, Di Cristofano A, Deblasio A, Hedvat C, Zhang J, Cordon-Cardo C, Mao S, Pandolfi PP, and Nimer SD (2002) The ETS protein MEF plays a critical role in perforin gene expression and the development of natural killer and NK-T cells. Immunity 17:437–439
Lieto LD, Borrego F, You CH, Coligan JE (2003) Human CD94 gene expression: dual promoters differing in responsiveness to IL-2 or IL-15. J Immunol 171:5277–5286
Liu J, Morris MA, Nguyen P, George TC, Koulich E, Lai WC, Schatzle JD, Kumar V, Bennett M (2000) Ly49I NK cell receptor transgene inhibition of rejection of H2b mouse bone marrow transplants. J Immunol 164:1793–1799
Ljutic B, Carlyle JR, Zuniga-Pflucker JC (2003) Identification of upstream cis-acting regulatory elements controlling lineage-specific expression of the mouse NK cell activation receptor, NKR-P1C. J Biol Chem 278: 31909–31917
Lohwasser S, Wilhelm B, Mager DL, Takei F (2000) The genomic organization of the mouse CD94 C-type lectin gene. Eur J Immunogenet 27:149–151
McMahon CW, Raulet DH (2001) Expression and function of NK receptors in CD8+ T cells. Curr Opin Immunol 13:465–470
McQueen KL, Wilhelm BT, Takei F, Mager DL (2001) Functional analysis of 5′ and 3′ regions of the closely related Ly49c and j genes. Immunogenetics 52:212–223
Nguyen QT, Doyen N, d’Andon MF, Rougeon F (1991). Demonstration of a divergent transcript from the bidirectional heavy chain immunoglobulin promoter Vh441 in B-cells. Nucleic Acids Res 19:5339–5344
Plougastel B, Trowsdale J (1998) Sequence analysis of a 62-kb region overlapping the human KLRC cluster of genes. Genomics 49:193–199
Raulet DH, Held W, Correa I, Dorfman J, Wu M-F, Corral L (1997) Specificity, tolerance and developmental regulation of natural killer cells defined by expression of class I specific Ly49 receptors. Immunol Rev 155: 41–52
Roth C, Carlyle JR, Takizawa H, Raulet DH (2000) Clonal acquisition of inhibitory Ly49 receptors on developing NK cells is successively restricted and regulated by stromal class I MHC. Immunity 13:143–153
Ryan JC, Turck J, Niemi EC, Yokoyama WM, Seaman WE (1992) Molecular cloning of the NK1.1 antigen, amember of the NKR-P1 family of natural killer cell activation molecules. J Immunol 149:1631–1635
Saleh A, Makrigiannis AP, Hodge DL, Anderson SK (2002) Identification of a novel Ly49 promoter that is active in bone marrow and fetal thymus. J Immunol 168:5163–5169
Saleh A, Davies GE, Pascal V, Wright PW, Hodge DL, Cho EH, Lockett SJ, Abshari M, Anderson SK (2004) Identification of probabilistic transcriptional switches in the Ly49 gene cluster: a eukaryotic mechanism for selective gene activation. Immunity 21:55–66
Santourlidis S, Trompeter HI, Weinhold S, Eisermann B, Meyer KL, Wernet P, Uhrberg M (2002) Crucial role of DNA methylation in determination of clonally distributed killer cell Ig-like receptor expression patterns in NK cells. J Immunol 169:4253–4261
Schilham MW, Wilson A, Moerer P, Benaissa-Trouw BJ, Cumano A, Clevers HC (1998) Critical involvement of Tcf-1 in expansion of thymocytes. J Immunol 161:3984–3991
Stevenaert F, Van Beneden K, De Creus A, Debacker V, Plum J, Leclercq G (2003) Ly49E expression points toward overlapping, but distinct, natural killer (NK) cell differentiation kinetics and potential of fetal versus adult lymphoid progenitors. J Leukoc Biol 73:731–738
Stewart CA, Van Bergen J, Trowsdale J (2003) Different and divergent regulation of the KIR2DL4 and KIR3DL1 promoters. J Immunol 170:6073–6081
Sun G, Kitchingman GR (1994) Bidirectional transcription from the human immunoglobulin VH6 gene promoter. Nucleic Acids Res 22:861–868
Takei F, McQueen KL, Maeda M, Wilhelm BT, Lohwasser S, Lian RH, Mager DL (2001) Ly49 and CD94/NKG2: developmentally regulated expression and evolution. Immunol Rev 181:90–103
Tanamachi DM, Moniot DC, Cado D, Liu SD, Hsia JK, Raulet DH (2004) Genomic Ly49A transgenes: basis of variegated Ly49A gene expression and identification of a critical regulatory element. J Immunol 172:1074–1082
Trowsdale J, Barten R, Haude A, Stewart CA, Beck S, Wilson MJ (2001) The genomic context of natural killer receptor extended gene families. Immunol Rev 181:20–38
Tsutsui H, Nakanishi K, Matsui K, Higashino K, Okamura H, Miyazawa Y, Kaneda K. (1996). IFN-γ-inducing factor up-regulates Fas ligand-mediated cytotoxic activity of murine natural killer cell clones. J Immunol 157: 3967–3973
Valiante NM, Uhrberg M, Shilling HG, Lienert-Weidenbach K, Arnett KL, D’Andrea A, Phillips JH, Lanier LL, Parham P (1997) Functionally and structurally distinct NK cell receptor repertoires in the peripheral blood of two human donors. Immunity 7:739–751
Vilches C, Gardiner CM, Parham P (2000) Gene structure and promoter variation of expressed and nonexpressed variants of the KIR2DL5 gene. J Immunol 165:6416–6421
Wang J-W, Howson JM, Ghansah T, Desponts C, Ninos JM, May SL, Nguyen KHT, Toyama-Sorimachi N, Kerr WG (2002) Influence of SHIP on the NK repertoire and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Science 295:2094–2097
Wilhelm BT, McQueen KL, Freeman JD, Takei F, Mager DL (2001) Comparative analysis of the promoter regions and transcriptional start sites of mouse Ly49 genes. Immunogenetics 53:215–224
Wilhelm BT, Landry JR, Takei F, Mager DL (2003) Transcriptional control of murine CD94 gene: differential usage of dual promoters by lymphoid cell types. J Immunol 171:4219–4226
Williams NS, Kubota A, Bennett M, Kumar V, Takei F (2000). Clonal analysis of NK cell development from bone marrow progenitors in vitro: orderly acquisition of receptor gene expression. Eur J Immunol 30:2074–2082
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Anderson, S.K. (2006). Transcriptional Regulation of NK Cell Receptors. In: Compans, R., et al. Immunobiology of Natural Killer Cell Receptors. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 298. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27743-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27743-9_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26083-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-27743-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)