Identification of an evolutionarily conserved transcriptional signature of CD8 memory...

Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA. After Ag encounter, naive lymphocytes differentiate into populations of memory cells that share a common set of functions including faster response to Ag re-exposure and the ability to self-renew. However, memory lymphocytes in different lymphocyte lineages are functionally and phenotypically diverse. It is not known whether discrete populations of T and B cells use similar transcriptional programs during differentiation into the memory state. We used cross-species genomic analysis to examine the pattern of genes up-regulated during the differentiation of naive lymphocytes into memory cells in multiple populations of human CD4, CD8, and B cell lymphocytes as well as two mouse models of memory development. We identified and validated a... [read full story]