Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Killer T cells show their kinder side

The immune system protects the body by responding to invading organisms. But how is an attack on useful resident microbes prevented? A pathway has now been identified that allows immune cells to sense and respond to beneficial bacteria.
  1. Paul Klenerman

    1. Paul Klenerman is in the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford OX1 3SY, UK, and in the Translational Gastroenterology Unit, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Graham Ogg

    1. Graham Ogg is in the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford OX1 3SY, UK, and in the MRC Human Immunology Unit, University of Oxford.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The immune system performs a difficult balancing act. It must respond rapidly to dangerous microorganisms that threaten the host, yet also coexist peacefully with the large array of microorganisms that colonize barrier surfaces such as those of the skin and gut. Writing in Cell, Linehan et al.1 examine the interactions between immune cells and a bacterium that normally resides on the skin, and identify a signalling pathway that governs the immune response to such microbes.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Nature 555, 594-595 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-03510-z

References

  1. Linehan, J. L. et al. Cell 172, 784–796 (2018).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sabaté Brescó, M. et al. Front. Microbiol. 8, 1401 (2017).

    PubMed  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Naik, S. et al. Nature 520, 104–108 (2015).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Wang, C.-R. et al. Cell 82, 655–664 (1995).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Legoux, F., Salou, M. & Lantz, O. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 33, 511–535 (2017).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Van Rhijn, I. et al. Nature Immunol. 14, 706–713 (2013).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Godfrey, D. I., Uldrich, A. P., McCluskey, J., Rossjohn, J. & Moody, D. B. Nature Immunol. 16, 1114–1123 (2015).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rodgers, J. R. & Cook, R. G. Nature Rev. Immunol. 5, 459–471 (2005).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Goyos, A., Sowa, J., Ohta, Y. & Robert, J. J. Immunol. 186, 372–381 (2011).

    PubMed  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links