Fc gamma receptors: gene structure and receptor function.

Molecular studies of murine Fc gamma R have revealed much exciting new information about the structure and regulation of Fc gamma RI and Fc gamma RII genes and of the Fc gamma RI protein. The Fc gamma RI gene is composed of six exons, whereas the Fc gamma RII gene is composed of ten. The extracellular domains are encoded by individual exons in both genes (three in Fc gamma RI and two in Fc gamma RII); however, the Fc gamma RII gene shows greatest complexity in the region encoding the cytoplasmic tail and membrane spanning region, which is encoded by four exons compared to only one in the Fc gamma RI gene. Expression of Fc gamma RII is controlled by elements within the first 641 bases upstream of the transcription initiation site. The function of the domains of Fc gamma RI has been defined with the surprising finding that in the absence of the third domain the first two extracellular domains function as a broadly specific low affinity Fc gamma RII-like receptor.