The interweaved signatures of common-gamma-chain cytokines across immunologic lineages
Alev Baysoy, Kumba Seddu, Tamara Salloum, Caleb A. Dawson, Juliana J. Lee, Liang Yang, Shani T. Gal-Oz, Hadas Ner‐Gaon, Julie Tellier, Alberto J. Millan, Alexander Sasse, Brian D. Brown, Lewis L. Lanier, Tal Shay, Stephen L. Nutt, Daniel F. Dwyer, Christophe Benoıst
Abstract
"γc" cytokines are a family whose receptors share a "common-gamma-chain" signaling moiety, and play central roles in differentiation, homeostasis, and communications of all immunocyte lineages. As a resource to better understand their range and specificity of action, we profiled by RNAseq the immediate-early responses to the main γc cytokines across all immunocyte lineages. The results reveal an unprecedented landscape: broader, with extensive overlap between cytokines (one cytokine doing in one cell what another does elsewhere) and essentially no effects unique to any one cytokine. Responses include a major downregulation component and a broad Myc-controlled resetting of biosynthetic and metabolic pathways. Various mechanisms appear involved: fast transcriptional activation, chromatin remodeling, and mRNA destabilization. Other surprises were uncovered: IL2 effects in mast cells, shifts between follicular and marginal zone B cells, paradoxical and cell-specific cross-talk between interferon and γc signatures, or an NKT-like program induced by IL21 in CD8+ T cells.