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A critical role for the cytoplasmic tail of pTα in T lymphocyte development

Nature Immunology volume 3, pages 483–488 (2002)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 June 2002

Abstract

Signals that emanate from the pre-T cell receptor (pre-TCR) regulate multiple processes required for the development of the αβ T cell lineage. In contrast to the γδ TCR, the pre-TCR localizes cell-autonomously to membrane rafts, where it appears to signal in a constitutive and ligand-independent manner. We addressed here the role played by structural features specific to the cytoplasmic domain of the pre-TCRα chain (pTα). More specifically, we examined a COOH-terminal proline-rich sequence that might play a role in signal transduction and a juxtamembrane cysteine residue that could be a target for palmitoylation, thus allowing spontaneous raft localization. Expression of pTα mutants in transgenic mice, retrovirally transduced T cell precursors and cell lines showed that the pTα cytoplasmic tail, in particular the proline-rich domain, plays a crucial role in pre-TCR signaling and T cell development. In contrast, the pTα juxtamembrane cysteine appeared to be dispensable for pre-TCR function.

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Figure 1: Generation of transgenic mice.
Figure 2: Thymic phenotype of mice that expressed different pTα transgenes.
Figure 3: Defective pre-TCRβ selection and increase in γδ T cells in thymi of pTαΔCyto and pTαΔPro transgenic mice.
Figure 4: Mutation of the pTα cytoplasmic tail impairs the rate of proliferation and survival of DN thymocytes.
Figure 5: Activity of pTα mutant chains examined with a BM reconstitution system.
Figure 6: Defective Ca2+ mobilization induced by pre-TCR complexes containing a pTαΔPro chain.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the NIH (grants A147281 and A145846 to H. v. B.), a “Eugenia Spanopoulou” – Irvington Institute grant (to I. A.) and a National Science Foundation grant (to C. B.). We thank B. Reizis for LR2 cell line and R. Mulligan for the MMLV-based retroviral vector; M. Prakriya and L. Scorrano for their advice and help with the Ca2+ measurements; S. Hoeflinger for technical assistance; H. Levine and M. Cantley for cell sorting; and E. Smith for help with preparation of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Iannis Aifantis and Christine Borowski: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, 02115, MA, USA

    Iannis Aifantis, Christine Borowski, Fotini Gounari & Harald von Boehmer

  2. Department of Medicine, Laboratory of Molecular Aspects of Hematopoiesis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10021, NY, USA

    H. Daniel Lacorazza

  3. Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health and Science University West Campus, Beaverton, 97006, OR, USA

    Janko Nikolich-Zugich

Authors
  1. Iannis Aifantis
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Correspondence to Harald von Boehmer.

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Aifantis, I., Borowski, C., Gounari, F. et al. A critical role for the cytoplasmic tail of pTα in T lymphocyte development. Nat Immunol 3, 483–488 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni779

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