Phosphorylation of Runx protein controls helper CD4+ T cell versus cytotoxic CD8+ T cell lineage choice

作者信息Chihiro Ogawa, Kazuki Okuyama, Satoshi Kojo, Kohei Nishino, Hiroaki Machiyama, Aditya K Padhi, Hirotaka Takahashi, Takashi Ebihara, Mari Tenno, Qin Zhizhen, Sawako Muroi, Kosei Ito, Tatsuya Sawasaki, Kam Y J Zhang, Hai-Hui Xue, Tadashi Yokosuka, Hidetaka Kosako, Ichiro Taniuchi
PMID41714737
期刊Nat Immunol
发布时间2026-02-19
DOI10.1038/s41590-026-02441-6
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摘要

MHC-I- and MHC-II-selected CD4+CD8+ precursor thymocytes differentiate into cytotoxic CD8+ and helper CD4+ lineage T cells, during which suppression of Cd4 and Thpok genes by Runx-dependent-silencers in those genes is crucial to segregate the two lineages. However, how TCR signals are linked to cytotoxic-lineage-specific Cd4-Thpok silencing remains unclear. Here we show that the terminal Y residue within the evolutionarily conserved C-terminal WRPY motif in Runx1, which is essential for interacting with TLE co-repressor proteins, was phosphorylated more in CD4-CD8+ thymocytes than in CD4+CD8- thymocytes, inducing an interaction with TLE co-repressors for cytotoxic-lineage specific Cd4-Thpok silencing. Non-receptor tyrosine kinases Lck and Zap70 interacted with Runx in the cytoplasm more in MHC-I-signaled CD4-CD8+ thymocytes than in CD4+CD8- thymocytes. Collectively, these findings reveal that differential phosphorylation states at the terminal tyrosine residue in Runx connect MHC restriction with the helper versus cytotoxic T cell lineage choice.

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