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Zeb1 represses TCR signaling, promotes the proliferation of T cell progenitors and is essential for NK1.1+ T cell development

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 18, pages 2140–2152 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

T cell development proceeds under the influence of a network of transcription factors (TFs). The precise role of Zeb1, a member of this network, remains unclear. Here, we report that Zeb1 expression is induced early during T cell development in CD4−CD8− double-negative (DN) stage 2 (DN2). Zeb1 expression was further increased in the CD4+CD8+ double-positive (DP) stage before decreasing in more mature T cell subsets. We performed an exhaustive characterization of T cells in Cellophane mice that bear Zeb1 hypomorphic mutations. The Zeb1 mutation profoundly affected all thymic subsets, especially DN2 and DP cells. Zeb1 promoted the survival and proliferation of both cell populations in a cell-intrinsic manner. In the periphery of Cellophane mice, the number of conventional T cells was near normal, but invariant NKT cells, NK1.1+ γδ T cells and Ly49+ CD8 T cells were virtually absent. This suggested that Zeb1 regulates the development of unconventional T cell types from DP progenitors. A transcriptomic analysis of WT and Cellophane DP cells revealed that Zeb1 regulated the expression of multiple genes involved in the cell cycle and TCR signaling, which possibly occurred in cooperation with Tcf1 and Heb. Indeed, Cellophane DP cells displayed stronger signaling than WT DP cells upon TCR engagement in terms of the calcium response, phosphorylation events, and expression of early genes. Thus, Zeb1 is a key regulator of the cell cycle and TCR signaling during thymic T cell development. We propose that thymocyte selection is perturbed in Zeb1-mutated mice in a way that does not allow the survival of unconventional T cell subsets.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contribution of the SFR Biosciences facilities (UMS3444/CNRS, ENSL, UCBL, and US8/INSERM), particularly the Plateau de Biologie Expérimentale de la Souris and the flow cytometry facility. We thank Bruce Beutler for sharing the Cellophane mutant mice. We also thank Andrew Griffiths and Kiyoto Kurima for discussions regarding Twirler mutant mice and Fotini Gounari and Christophe Benoist for providing RNA-seq/ChIP-seq data on T cell development. The TW lab is supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR GAMBLER to TW and ANR JC BaNK to AM) and the Institut National du Cancer and receives institutional grants from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Claude Bernard Lyon and ENS de Lyon, and the Joint Research Institute for Science and Society (JORISS). JZ is the recipient of a fellowship from the China Scholarship Council (CSC). RS and YGH were funded by an FRM grant (AJE20161236686) to YGH.

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  1. CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie, Univ Lyon, Inserm, U1111, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, ENS de Lyon, F-69007, Lyon, France

    Jiang Zhang, Mélanie Wencker, Quentin Marliac, Aurore Berton, Uzma Hasan, Daphné Laubreton, Dylan E. Cherrier, Anne-Laure Mathieu, Amaury Rey, Antoine Marçais, Jacqueline Marvel & Thierry Walzer

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Jiang Zhang & Wenzheng Jiang

  3. Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 46 allée d’Italie, F-69364, Lyon, France

    Raphaël Schneider & Yad Ghavi-Helm

  4. CRCL, Centre de Recherche sur le Cancer de Lyon, INSERM U1052—CNRS UMR5286, Centre Léon Bérard, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France

    Julie Caramel & Laurent Genestier

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Contributions

JZ, AB, MW, DL, DEC, ALM, AR, and AM performed the experiments. RS and QM performed the in silico analyses. JC, LG, and YGH provided reagents and conceptual insight and helped write the paper. TW wrote the paper and supervised the work.

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Correspondence to Thierry Walzer.

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Zhang, J., Wencker, M., Marliac, Q. et al. Zeb1 represses TCR signaling, promotes the proliferation of T cell progenitors and is essential for NK1.1+ T cell development. Cell Mol Immunol 18, 2140–2152 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-020-0459-y

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