Cloning of rhesus monkey killer-cell Ig-like receptors (KIRs) from early pregnancy decidua.

To define the killer-cell Ig-like receptors (KIR) molecules expressed within the decidua in the rhesus monkey, an early pregnancy rhesus decidual library was screened with an oligonucleotide located within the KIR D2 domain. We obtained 26 full-length clones which represented 11 mRNAs. The cDNAs encode proteins containing 2 or 3 Ig domains, and short or long cytoplasmic domains. The long domains contained immunotyrosine inhibitory motifs (ITIM) motifs indicating inhibitory function. Three clones contained single or dinucleotide deletions within the D1 domain, which would result in proteins truncated within this domain. Phylogenetic analysis of the Ig domains supports a D0 - D2 organization of rhesus KIR2DL4.1, similar to human KIR2DL4 and KIR2DL5. The rhesus KIR2DL4.1 transcript contains a long cytoplasmic tail homologous with human KIR2DL4.