Members of the RAET1 family, such as RAET1E, are major
histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-related genes located
within a 180-kb cluster on chromosome 6q24.2-q25.3. RAET1 proteins
contain MHC class I-like alpha-1 and alpha-2 domains. RAET1E and
RAET1G (MIM 609244) differ from the other RAET1 proteins (e.g.,
RAET1I, or ULBP1; MIM 605697) in that they have type I
membrane-spanning sequences at their C termini rather than
glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor sequences. RAET1E is a ligand
for NKG2D (KLRK1; MIM 611817), which is expressed on the surface of
several types of immune cells and is involved in innate and
adaptive immune responses (summary by Radosavljevic et al. (2002)
[PubMed 11827464] and Cao et al. (2007) [PubMed
17470428]).
