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.