Description
Fractalkine, also named neurotactin, is a novel chemokine recently identified through bioinformatics. Fractalkine has a unique C-X3-C cysteine motif near the amino-terminus and is the first member of a fourth branch of the chemokine superfamily. Unlike other known chemokines, fractalkine is a type 1 membrane protein containing a chemokine domain tethered on a long mucin-like stalk. Human fractalkine cDNA encodes a 397 amino acid (aa) residue membrane protein with a 24 aa residue predicted signal peptide, a 76 aa residue chemokine domain, a 241 aa residue stalk region containing 17 degenerate mucin-like repeats, a 19 aa residue transmembrane segment and a 37 aa residue cytoplasmic domain. The extracellular domain of human fractalkine can be released, possibly by proteolysis at the dibasic cleavage site proximal to the membrane, to generate soluble fractalkine. The soluble chemokine domain of human fractalkine was reported to be chemotactic for T cells and monocytes while the soluble chemokine domain of mouse fractalkine was reported to chemoattract neutrophils and T-lymphocytes but not monocytes.