The innate immune system recognizes pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that are expressed on infectious agents, but not on the host. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize PAMPs and mediate the production of cytokines necessary for the development of effective immunity. Flagellin, a principal component of bacterial flagella, is a virulence factor that is recognized by the innate immune system in organisms as diverse as flies, plants and mammals. Here we report that mammalian TLR5 recognizes bacterial flagellin from both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and that activation of the receptor mobilizes the nuclear factor NF-kappaB and stimulates tumour necrosis factor-alpha production. TLR5-stimulating activity was purified from Listeria monocytogenes culture supernatants and identified as flagellin by tandem mass spectrometry. Expression of L. monocytogenes flagellin in non-flagellated Escherichia coli conferred on the bacterium the ability to activate TLR5, whereas deletion of the flagellin genes from Salmonella typhimurium abrogated TLR5-stimulating activity. All known TLRs signal through the adaptor protein MyD88. Mice challenged with bacterial flagellin rapidly produced systemic interleukin-6, whereas MyD88-null mice did not respond to flagellin. Our data suggest that TLR5, a member of the evolutionarily conserved Toll-like receptor family, has evolved to permit mammals specifically to detect flagellated bacterial pathogens.

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been shown to participate in the recognition of pathogens by the innate immune system, but it is not clear how a restricted family of receptors has the capacity to recognize the wide spectrum of TLR stimuli known to exist. We report here that two members of the TLR family, TLR2 and TLR6, together coordinate macrophage activation by Gram-positive bacteria and the yeast cellwall particle, zymosan. TLR6 and TLR2 both are recruited to the macrophage phagosome, where they recognize peptidoglycan, a Gram-positive pathogen component. By contrast, TLR2 recognizes another component, bacterial lipopeptide, without TLR6. The requirement for TLR cooperation is supported by the finding that TLR2 needs a partner to activate tumor necrosis factor-␣ production in macrophages. Dimerization of the cytoplasmic domain of TLR2 does not induce tumor necrosis factor-␣ production in macrophages, whereas similar dimerization of the TLR4 cytoplasmic domain does. We show that the cytoplasmic domain of TLR2 can form functional pairs with TLR6 or TLR1, and this interaction leads to cytokine induction. Thus, the cytoplasmic tails of TLRs are not functionally equivalent, with certain TLRs requiring assembly into heteromeric complexes, whereas others are active as homomeric complexes. Finally, we show that TLR6, TLR2, and TLR1 are recruited to macrophage phagosomes that contain IgG-coated erythrocytes that do not display microbial components. The data suggest that TLRs sample the contents of the phagosome independent of the nature of the contents, and can establish a combinatorial repertoire to discriminate among the large number of pathogen-associated molecular patterns found in nature.

The phagocytic response of innate immune cells such as macrophages is defined by the activation of complex signaling networks that are stimulated by microbial contact. Many individual proteins have been demonstrated to participate in phagocytosis, and the application of high-throughput tools has indicated that many more remain to be described. In this review, we examine this complexity and describe how during recognition, multiple receptors are simultaneously engaged to mediate internalization, activate microbial killing, and induce the production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Many signaling molecules perform multiple functions during phagocytosis, and these molecules are likely to be key regulators of the process. Indeed, pathogenic microorganisms target many of these molecules in their attempts to evade destruction.

Influenza's Cryptic Constraint Because of the well-known pandemic potential of influenza viruses, it is important to understand the range of molecular interactions between the virus and its host. Despite years of intensive research on the virus, Jagger et al. (p. 199 , published online 28 June; see the Perspective by Yewdell and Ince ) have found that the influenza A virus has been hiding a gene in its small negative-sense RNA genome. An overlapping open reading frame was found contained in the PA viral RNA polymerase gene, which is accessed by ribosomal frameshifting to produce a fusion protein containing the N-terminal messenger RNA (mRNA) endonuclease domain of PA and an alternative C-terminal X domain. The resulting polypeptide, PA-X, selectively degrades host mRNAs and, in a mouse model of infection, modulated cellular immune responses, thus limiting viral pathogenesis.

Macrophages orchestrate innate immunity by phagocytosing pathogens and coordinating inflammatory responses 1 . Effective defence requires the host to discriminate between different pathogens. The specificity of innate immune recognition in Drosophila is mediated by the Toll family of receptors 2,3 ; Toll mediates anti-fungal responses, whereas 18-wheeler mediates anti-bacterial defence 4-6 . A large number of Toll homologues have been identified in mammals, and Toll-like receptor 4 is critical in responses to Gram-negative bacteria 7-11 . Here we show that Toll-like receptor 2 is recruited specifically to macrophage phagosomes containing yeast, and that a point mutation in the receptor abrogates inflammatory responses to yeast and Gram-positive bacteria, but not to Gram-negative bacteria. Thus, during the phagocytosis of pathogens, two classes of innate immune receptors cooperate to mediate host defence: phagocytic receptors, such as the mannose receptor, signal particle internalization, and the Toll-like receptors sample the contents of the vacuole and trigger an inflammatory response appropriate to defence against the specific organism.

Members of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) and interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) superfamily share an intracytoplasmic Toll-IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain, which mediates recruitment of the interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK) complex via TIR-containing adapter molecules. We describe three unrelated children with inherited IRAK-4 deficiency. Their blood and fibroblast cells did not activate nuclear factor kappaB and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and failed to induce downstream cytokines in response to any of the known ligands of TIR-bearing receptors. The otherwise healthy children developed infections caused by pyogenic bacteria. These findings suggest that, in humans, the TIR-IRAK signaling pathway is crucial for protective immunity against specific bacteria but is redundant against most other microorganisms.

Leptospira interrogans are zoonotic pathogens that have been linked to a recent increased incidence of morbidity and mortality in highly populated tropical urban centers. They are unique among invasive spirochetes in that they contain outer membrane lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as well as lipoproteins. Here we show that both these leptospiral outer membrane constituents activate macrophages through CD14 and the Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). Conversely, it seems that TLR4, a central component for recognition of Gram-negative LPS, is not involved in cellular responses to L. interrogans. We also show that for intact L. interrogans, it is LPS, not lipoprotein, that constitutes the predominant signaling component for macrophages through a TLR2 pathway. These data provide a basis for understanding the innate immune response caused by leptospirosis and demonstrate a new ligand specificity for TLR2.

The recognition of mycobacterial cell wall components causes macrophages to secrete tumor necrosis factor ␣ (TNF-␣) and other cytokines that are essential for the development of a protective inflammatory response. We show that toll-like receptors are required for the induction of TNF-␣ in macrophages by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Expression of a dominant negative form of MyD88 (a signaling component required for toll-like receptor signaling) in a mouse macrophage cell line blocks TNF-␣ production induced by M. tuberculosis. We identify toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2) as the specific toll-like receptor required for this induction by showing that expression of an inhibitory TLR2 (TLR2-P681H) blocks TNF-␣ production induced by whole M. tuberculosis. Further, we show that TLR2-dependent signaling mediates responses to mycobacterial cell wall fractions enriched for lipoarrabinomannan, mycolylarabinogalactan-peptidoglycan complex, or M. tuberculosis total lipids. Thus, although many mycobacterial cell wall fractions are identified to be inflammatory, all require TLR2 for induction of TNF-␣ in macrophages. These data suggest that TLR2 is essential for the induction of a protective immune response to mycobacteria.