Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30307, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30307, USA.
Nat Commun. 2019 Jan 14;10(1):196. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07956-7.
In response to viral infection, CD8 T cells undergo expansion and differentiate into distinct classes of effector cells. After clearance of the virus, a small population of long-lived memory cells persists. Comprehensive studies have defined the protein-coding transcriptional changes associated with this process. Here we expand on this prior work by performing RNA-sequencing to identify changes in long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression in human and mouse CD8 T cells responding to viral infection. We identify hundreds of unannotated lncRNAs and show that expression profiles of both known and novel lncRNAs are sufficient to define naive, effector, and memory CD8 T cell subsets, implying that they may be involved in fate decisions during antigen-driven differentiation. Additionally, in comparing mouse and human lncRNA expression, we find that lncRNAs with conserved sequence undergo similar changes in expression in the two species, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved role for lncRNAs during CD8 T cell differentiation.
针对病毒感染，CD8 T 细胞经历扩增并分化为不同类别的效应细胞。在清除病毒后，一小部分长寿记忆细胞持续存在。全面的研究已经确定了与该过程相关的蛋白编码转录变化。在这里，我们通过进行 RNA 测序来扩展先前的工作，以鉴定人类和小鼠 CD8 T 细胞对病毒感染反应中长非编码 RNA（lncRNA）表达的变化。我们鉴定了数百个未注释的 lncRNA，并表明已知和新型 lncRNA 的表达谱足以定义幼稚、效应和记忆 CD8 T 细胞亚群，这表明它们可能参与抗原驱动的分化过程中的命运决定。此外，在比较小鼠和人类 lncRNA 表达时，我们发现具有保守序列的 lncRNA 在两种物种中的表达变化相似，这表明 lncRNA 在 CD8 T 细胞分化过程中具有进化保守的作用。
