Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Cichocki F
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3477858 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Cichocki Frank F Lenvik Todd T Sharma Neeraj N Yun Gong G Anderson Stephen K SK Miller Jeffrey S JS
Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 20100714 4
Killer Ig-like receptors (KIRs) are expressed in a variegated, clonally restricted fashion on NK cells and are important determinants of NK cell function. Although silencing of individual KIR genes is strongly correlated with the presence of CpG dinucleotide methylation within the promoter, the mechanism responsible for silencing has not been identified. Our results show that antisense transcripts mediate KIR transcriptional silencing through a novel PIWI-like 28-base small RNA. Although PIWI RN ...[more]