Regional sublocalization of the human CD69 gene to chromosome bands 12p12.3-p13.2, the predicted region of the human natural killer cell gene complex.

The early activation antigen CD69 is a member of a supergene family of type II integral membrane proteins with a C-type lectin domain. In recent reports the genes encoding the natural killer (NK) cell-related molecules of this supergene family, NKR-P1, NK1.1 and Ly-49, were shown to be clustered in a chromosomal region in mouse, termed the NK gene complex. The human homologue of this complex is likely to reside on chromosome 12 near the PRP locus (12p13.2). By analyzing T cell hybrids, the CD69 gene was previously mapped to human chromosome 12. Here we report the regional sublocalization of the human CD69 gene to chromosome bands 12p12.3-p13.2, suggesting that CD69 belongs to one linkage group together with different cell surface molecules on NK cells.