Modular design of immunological synapses and kinapses.
The concept of an immunological synapse goes back to the early 1980s with the discovery of the relationship between T-cell antigen receptor mediated Ca(2+) signaling, adhesion, and directed secretion. However, this concept did not gain traction until images were published starting in 1998 that revealed a specific molecular pattern in the interface between T cells and model antigen-presenting cells or supported planar bilayers. The dominant pattern, a ring of adhesion molecules surrounding a central cluster of antigen receptors, was observed in both model systems. Analysis of the origins of this pattern over the past 10 years has presented a solution for a difficult problem in lymphocyte biology--how a highly motile cell can suddenly stop when it encounters a signal delivered by just a few antigenic ligands on the surface of another cell without disabling the sensory machinery of the motile cell. The T lymphocyte actively assembles the immunological synapse pattern following a modular design with roots in actin-myosin-based motility.
Dustin
Michael L
ML
Program in Molecular Pathogenesis, Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine, The Helen L and Martin S Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York 10016, USA. michael.dustin@med.nyu.edu
D000199:Actins / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002465:Cell Movement; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System; D054992:Immunological Synapses; D008024:Ligands; D008954:Models, Biological; D009218:Myosins / Q000737:chemistry; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism
D000199:Actins; D008024:Ligands; D009218:Myosins; D002118:Calcium