Concepedia

Asymmetric T Lymphocyte Division in the Initiation of Adaptive Immune Responses

John T. Chang, V. Palanivel, Ichiko Kinjyo, Felix Schambach, Andrew M. Intlekofer, Arnob Banerjee, Sarah Longworth, Kristine E. Vinup, Paul Mrass, Jane Oliaro,

Science · 2007 · 841 citations · 32 references

DOI

TL;DR

A hallmark of mammalian immunity is the heterogeneity of cell fate that exists among pathogen‑experienced lymphocytes. Asymmetric segregation of determinants appears to be coordinated by prolonged interaction between the T cell and its antigen‑presenting cell before division. We show that a dividing T lymphocyte initially responding to a microbe exhibits unequal partitioning of signaling, fate‑specifying, and asymmetric division proteins, and that its first two daughters display phenotypic and functional markers of divergent effector and memory fates, indicating a mechanism by which a single lymphocyte can apportion diverse cell fates necessary for adaptive immunity.

Abstract

A hallmark of mammalian immunity is the heterogeneity of cell fate that exists among pathogen-experienced lymphocytes. We show that a dividing T lymphocyte initially responding to a microbe exhibits unequal partitioning of proteins that mediate signaling, cell fate specification, and asymmetric cell division. Asymmetric segregation of determinants appears to be coordinated by prolonged interaction between the T cell and its antigen-presenting cell before division. Additionally, the first two daughter T cells displayed phenotypic and functional indicators of being differentially fated toward effector and memory lineages. These results suggest a mechanism by which a single lymphocyte can apportion diverse cell fates necessary for adaptive immunity.