Novel genes expressed selectively by long-term dendritic cell (DC) lines (XS series) from murine epidermis which retain important features of resident epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) are provided. These genes encode distinct type II membrane-integrated polypeptides, each consisting of a cytoplasmic domain, a transmembrane domain, an extracellular connecting domain, and a C-terminal extracellular domain that exhibits significant homology to the carbohydrate recognition domains (CRD) of C-type lectins. Expression of both genes is highly restricted to cells of DC lineage (including epidermal LC). Thus, these genes encode new, DC-specific members of the C-type lectin family, now termed "DC-associated C-type lectin-1 and -2" (dectin-1 and dectin-2). Two isoforms of the dectin-1 molecule and five isoforms of the dectin-2 molecule have also been identified. The invention further provides His-tagged fusion proteins comprising 6.times. histidine and the extracellular domain of dectin-1 or dectin-2. Also provided are antibodies raised to synthetic peptides designed from the dectin-1 sequence or to the His-tagged fusion proteins described.
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/396,492 filed Sep. 14, 1999, itself a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/772,440 filed Dec. 20, 1996, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,158, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference without disclaimer and to which benefit of priority is claimed. The government owns rights in the present invention pursuant to grant numbers R01AR35068 and R01AR41150 from the National Institutes of Health.
