title: A novel system of polymorphic and diverse NK cell receptors in primates.
abstract: There are two main classes of natural killer (NK) cell receptors in mammals, the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) and the structurally unrelated killer cell lectin-like receptors (KLR). While KIR represent the most diverse group of NK receptors in all primates studied to date, including humans, apes, and Old and New World monkeys, KLR represent the functional equivalent in rodents. Here, we report a first digression from this rule in lemurs, where the KLR (CD94/NKG2) rather than KIR constitute the most diverse group of NK cell receptors. We demonstrate that natural selection contributed to such diversification in lemurs and particularly targeted KLR residues interacting with the peptide presented by MHC class I ligands. We further show that lemurs lack a strict ortholog or functional equivalent of MHC-E, the ligands of non-polymorphic KLR in "higher" primates. Our data support the existence of a hitherto unknown system of polymorphic and diverse NK cell receptors in primates and of combinatorial diversity as a novel mechanism to increase NK cell receptor repertoire.
authors.affiliation: Department of Primate Genetics, German Primate Centre, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Averdam
authors.forename: Beatrix
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rosner
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Neff
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roos
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eberle
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aujard
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Münch
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schempp
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carrington
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiina
authors.forename: Hidetoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inoko
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Knaust
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coggill
authors.forename: Harminder
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sehra
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Abi-Rached
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reinhardt
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Walter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008958:Models, Molecular; D051920:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D011443:Strepsirhini / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens; D051920:NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily D