Entrez Summary: Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are transmembrane glycoproteins expressed by natural killer cells and subsets of T cells. The KIR genes are polymorphic and highly homologous and they are found in a cluster on chromosome 19q13.4 within the 1 Mb leukocyte receptor complex (LRC). The gene content of the KIR gene cluster varies among haplotypes, although several 'framework' genes are found in all haplotypes (KIR3DL3, KIR3DP1, KIR3DL4, KIR3DL2). The KIR proteins are classified by the number of extracellular immunoglobulin domains (2D or 3D) and by whether they have a long (L) or short (S) cytoplasmic domain. KIR proteins with the long cytoplasmic domain transduce inhibitory signals upon ligand binding via an immune tyrosine-based inhibitory motif (ITIM), while KIR proteins with the short cytoplasmic domain lack the ITIM motif and instead associate with the TYRO protein tyrosine kinase binding protein to transduce activating signals. The ligands for several KIR proteins are subsets of HLA class I molecules; thus, KIR proteins are thought to play an important role in regulation of the immune response. This gene is one of the 'framework' loci that is present on all haplotypes. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding multiple isoforms have been observed for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jun 2011].
UniProt Summary: Receptor on natural killer (NK) cells for HLA-A alleles. Inhibits the activity of NK cells thus preventing cell lysis.
Pfam DomainsGO Terms
Pfam Domains
ig
GO Terms
MHC class Ib protein binding
cellular defense response
negative regulation of neuron death
regulation of neuron death
negative regulation of cell death
regulation of immune response
defense response
integral component of plasma membrane
regulation of immune system process
regulation of cell death
CRISPR Data
Compound HitMost Correlated Genes in ChemogenomicsTissues where Essential in the Avana Dataset (DepMap 20Q1)