Killer Cell Lectin Like Receptor Subfamily C, Member 3 (KLRC3)

Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes that can mediate lysis of certain tumor cells and virus-infected cells without previous activation. Members of the NKG2 gene family encode NK cell-specific lectin-like molecules that may have receptor function. By screening an NK cell library with an NKG2C (KLR2C) cDNA, Adamkiewicz et al. (1994) identified cDNAs corresponding to a member of the NKG2 family that they called NKG2E. The sequence of the predicted 261-amino acid protein is 95% identical to that of NKG2C over the first 191 amino acids.Glienke et al. (1998) determined that the NKG2C, NKG2E, and NKG2F genes are highly similar except for variability at their 3-prime ends. The NKG2C gene contains 6 exons, whereas NKG2E has 7 exons and NKG2F has only 4 exons.