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Flippin' lipids

Nature Immunology volume 12, pages 373–375 (2011)Cite this article

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B cell generation is disturbed in four newly identified mouse mutants bearing X-linked mutations in the gene encoding the ATPase ATP11C. These findings suggest that the distribution of membrane phospholipids confers a yet-to-be delineated developmental signal.

The mechanisms of B lymphopoiesis are often described in terms of interrelated signaling and transcriptional networks that enforce cell fate 'decisions'1,2,3. Knowledge of these mechanisms is considerable in part because they are amenable to delineation by biochemical and genetic means. In contrast, little is known about how the structure and dynamics of cellular membranes contribute to development in the bone marrow. Two papers in this issue of Nature Immunology provide compelling evidence that a molecule linked to control of the distribution and turnover of aminophospholipids in membranes has an indispensable and very specific role in B lymphopoiesis4,5.

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Figure 1: Flippases, floppases and PS.

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  1. Marcus R. Clark is in the Department of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology and Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus Research, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.,

    Marcus R Clark

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  1. Marcus R Clark
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Correspondence to Marcus R Clark.

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Clark, M. Flippin' lipids. Nat Immunol 12, 373–375 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.2024

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