Organism Mus musculus Alt. symbols Ly49b; Klra30 RefSeq (mRNA) NM_008462.5 | Symbol Klra2 Entrez 16633 RefSeq (Prot) NP_032488.4 | |
Ly-49 receptors or killer cell lectin-like receptor subfamily A (KLRA), are a class of natural killer cell receptor. Ly-49 proteins are a diverse set of C-type lectins that are expressed on NK cells in some mammals, including rodents but not humans. Their primary function is to bind host MHC class I as a mechanism of self/health recognition. Upon binding ligands, most Ly-49 receptors will deliver an inhibitory signal, preventing killing of the target cell. In the case of cancer or virally infected cells, MHC-I will often be downregulated in order to limit cytotoxic T cell mediated killing of the cell, whereby NK cells will lack Ly-49 inhibitory signal and be able to kill infected or cancerous target cells.
The homologous human KLRAP1 gene has been classified as a transcribed pseudogene because all associated transcripts are candidates for nonsense-mediated decay (NMD).