Complement receptor 2

Complement receptor type 2 (CR2), also known as complement C3d receptor, Epstein-Barr virus receptor, and CD21 (cluster of differentiation 21), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CR2 gene.1GHQ, 1LY2, 1W2R, 1W2S, 2GSX, 3OED138012902ENSG00000117322ENSMUSG00000026616P20023P19070NM_001006658NM_001877NM_007758NM_001368765NP_001006659NP_001868n/aComplement receptor 2 interacts with CD19, and, on mature B cells, forms a complex with CD81(TAPA-1). The CR2-CD19-CD81 complex is often called the B cell co-receptor complex, because CR2 binds to opsonized antigens through attached C3d (or iC3b or C3dg) when the B-cell receptor binds antigen. This results in the B cell having greatly enhanced response to the antigen.The canonical Cr2/CD21 gene of subprimate mammals produces two types of complement receptor (CR1, ca. 200 kDa; CR2, ca. 145 kDa) via alternative mRNA splicing. The murine Cr2 gene contains 25 exons; a common first exon is spliced to exon 2 and to exon 9 in transcripts encoding CR1 and CR2, respectively. A transcript with an open reading frame of 4,224 nucleotides encodes the long isoform, CR1; this is predicted to be a protein of 1,408 amino acids that includes 21 short consensus repeats (SCR) of ca. 60 amino acids each, plus transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions. Isoform CR2 (1,032 amino acids) is encoded by a shorter transcript (3,096 coding nucleotides) that lacks exons 2-8 encoding SCR1-6. CR1 and CR2 on murine B cells form complexes with a co-accessory activation complex containing CD19, CD81, and the fragilis/Ifitm (murine equivalents of LEU13) proteins.Although CR2 is present on all mature B-cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs), this becomes readily apparent only when immunohistochemistry is performed on frozen sections. In more conventional paraffin-embedded tissue samples, only the FDCs retain the staining pattern. As a result, CR2, more commonly called CD21 in the context of immunohistochemistry, can be used to demonstrate the FDC meshwork in lymphoid tissue.