ITAM-mediated Signaling by the T-Cell Antigen Receptor
- 1Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
- 2Department of Microbiology & Immunology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York 13210
- Correspondence: lovep{at}mail.nih.gov
Abstract
Signal transduction by the T-cell antigen receptor (TCR) is initiated by phosphorylation of conserved motifs (ITAMs) contained within the cytoplasmic domains of the invariant subunits. TCR complexes contain a total of 10 ITAMs and this unusual configuration has prompted studies of the role of specific ITAMs, or of ITAM multiplicity, in regulating TCR-directed developmental and effector responses. Here, we summarize data generated during the past two decades and discuss how these findings have in some cases resolved, and in others complicated, outstanding questions relating to the function of TCR ITAMs.
Footnotes
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Editors: Lawrence E. Samelson and Andrey Shaw
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Additional Perspectives on Immunoreceptor Signaling available at www.cshperspectives.org
- Copyright © 2010 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved
