Evolution of the C-Type Lectin-Like Receptor Genes of the DECTIN-1 Cluster in the NK Gene Complex
Figure 1
Evolutionary conserved characteristics of C-type lectin-like receptors. (a) Schematic representation of the common exon-intron structure of C-type lectin-like receptors and the corresponding protein domains. N-terminal cytoplasmic domain, transmembrane, and stalk region are each encoded by one exon, the C-type lectin-like domain (CTLD) by three exons. Disulfide bridged bonds between six highly conserved cysteins in the extracellular CTLD cause the typical β-sheet tertiary structure of C-type lectin-like proteins. (b) Alignment of human and putative C. elegans CLEC-1 protein sequences. Conserved CTLD cysteins are boxed in red, asterisk (*) fully conserved, colon (:) strongly similar properties (>0.5 Gonnet PAM 250 matrix), period (.) weakly similar properties (>0.5 Gonnet PAM 250 matrix). Alignments were produced using ClustalW [26]. CYT: cytoplasmic region, TM: transmembrane region, CTLD: C-type lectin-like domain.
