Signal-regulatory protein (SIRP) immunoglobulin-like domain 3; member of the C1-set of Ig superfamily (IgSF) domains
The members here are composed of the immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain in Signal-Regulatory Protein (SIRP), domain 3 (C1 repeat 2). The SIRPs belong to the "paired receptors" class of membrane proteins that comprise several genes coding for proteins with similar extracellular regions but very different transmembrane/cytoplasmic regions with different (activating or inhibitory) signaling potentials. They are commonly on NK cells, but are also on many myeloid cells. Their extracellular region contains three Immunoglobulin superfamily domains a single V-set and two C1-set IgSF domains. Their cytoplasmic tails that contain either ITIMs or transmembrane regions that have positively charged residues that allow an association with adaptor proteins, such as DAP12/KARAP, containing ITAMs. There are 3 distinct SIRP members: alpha, beta, and gamma. SIRP alpha (also known as CD172a or SRC homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase substrate 1/Shps-1) is a membrane receptor that interacts with a ligand CD47 expressed on many cells and gives an inhibitory signal through immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motifs in the cytoplasmic region that interact with phosphatases SHP-1 and SHP-2. SIRP beta has a short cytoplasmic region and associates with a transmembrane adapter protein DAP12 containing immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs to give an activating signal. SIRP gamma contains a very short cytoplasmic region lacking obvious signaling motifs but also binds CD47, but with much less affinity.