UL16 binding protein 2 (ULBP2) is a cell surface

glycoprotein Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycos ...

encoded by ''ULBP2'' gene located on the chromosome 6. ULBP2 is related to MHC class I molecules, but its gene maps outside the MHC locus. The domain structure of ULBP2 differs significantly from those of conventional MHC class I molecules. It does not contain the α3 domain and the transmembrane segment. ULBP2 is thus composed of only the α1α2 domain which is linked to the cell membrane by the

GPI anchor Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (), or glycophosphatidylinositol, or GPI in short, is a phosphoglyceride that can be attached to the C-terminus of a protein during posttranslational modification. The resulting GPI-anchored proteins play key roles in ...

. ULBP2 functions as a stress-induced

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule (functional group) that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's electr ...

for the

NKG2D NKG2D is an activating receptor (transmembrane protein) belonging to the NKG2 family of C-type lectin, C-type lectin-like receptors. NKG2D is encoded by ''KLRK1'' (killer cell lectin like receptor K1) gene which is located in the NK-gene complex ...

killer activation receptor Killer Activation Receptors (KARs) are receptors expressed on the plasmatic membrane of Natural Killer cells (NK cells). KARs work together with inhibitory receptors (abbreviated as KIRs in the text), which inactivate them in order to regulate t ...

natural killer cell Natural killer cells, also known as NK cells or large granular lymphocytes (LGL), are a type of cytotoxic lymphocyte critical to the innate immune system that belong to the rapidly expanding family of known innate lymphoid cells (ILC) and repres ...

References

Further reading