A. Rinfret et Sk. Anderson, IL-2 REGULATES THE EXPRESSION OF THE NK-TR GENE VIA AN ALTERNATE RNA SPLICING MECHANISM, Molecular immunology, 30(14), 1993, pp. 1307-1313
We have recently isolated and characterized human and mouse genes of a
putative natural killer (NK) cell tumour-recognition protein (NK-TR)
that is specifically expressed in NK cells. This gene codes for a 150
kD protein with a cyclophilin-related amino terminus followed by sever
al positively charged domains. We report here the discovery of two sit
es of alternate splicing in the 5' region of the NK-TR mRNA. One of th
ese events caused a frameshift in the open reading frame by splicing i
n a 28 bp exon within the cyclophilin coding region, resulting in the
premature termination of the NK-TR protein. The second alternate splic
e stemmed from the use of an internal splice acceptor within an exon,
producing a deletion of 25 amino acids in the NK-TR protein. The activ
ation of NK cells by IL-2 produced a change in the splicing pattern th
at resulted in increased production of mRNAs capable of producing the
complete NK-TR protein.