The thymus is responsible for generating a diverse yet self-tolerant pool of T cells. Although the thymic medulla consists mostly of developing and mature AIRE epithelial cells, recent evidence has suggested that there is far greater heterogeneity among medullary thymic epithelial cells than was previously thought. Here we describe in detail an epithelial subset that is remarkably similar to peripheral tuft cells that are found at mucosal barriers. Similar to the periphery, thymic tuft cells express the canonical taste transduction pathway and IL-25. However, they are unique in their spatial association with cornified aggregates, ability to present antigens and expression of a broad diversity of taste receptors. Some thymic tuft cells pass through an Aire-expressing stage and depend on a known AIRE-binding partner, HIPK2, for their development. Notably, the taste chemosensory protein TRPM5 is required for their thymic function through which they support the development and polarization of thymic invariant natural killer T cells and act to establish a medullary microenvironment that is enriched in the type 2 cytokine, IL-4. These findings indicate that there is a compartmentalized medullary environment in which differentiation of a minor and highly specialized epithelial subset has a non-redundant role in shaping thymic function.

The developmental programs that generate a broad repertoire of regulatory T cells (T reg cells) able to respond to both self antigens and non–self antigens remain unclear. Here we found that mature T reg cells were generated through two distinct developmental programs involving CD25 + T reg cell progenitors (CD25 + T reg P) and Foxp3 lo T reg cell progenitors (Foxp3 lo T reg P). The CD25 + T reg P had higher rates of apoptosis and interacted with thymic self-antigens with higher affinity than Foxp3 lo T reg P, and had a T cell antigen receptor (TCR) repertoire and transcriptome distinct from that of Foxp3 lo T reg P. The development of CD25 + T reg P and Foxp3 lo T reg P was controlled by distinct signaling pathways and enhancers. Transcriptomic and histocytometric data suggested that CD25 + T reg P and Foxp3 lo T reg P arose by coopting negative and positive selection programs, respectively. T reg cells derived from CD25 + T reg P, but not Foxp3 lo T reg P, prevented experimental autoimmune encephalitis. Our findings indicate that T reg cells arise through two distinct developmental programs that are both required for a comprehensive T reg cell repertoire capable of establishing immune tolerance.

PU.1 is essential for early stages of mouse T cell development but antagonizes it if expressed constitutively. Two separable mechanisms are involved: attenuation and diversion. Dysregulated PU.1 expression inhibits pro-T cell survival, proliferation, and passage through β-selection by blocking essential T cell transcription factors, signaling molecules, and Rag gene expression, which expression of a rearranged T cell antigen receptor transgene cannot rescue. However, Bcl2 transgenic cells are protected from this attenuation and may even undergo β-selection, as shown by PU.1 transduction of defined subsets of Bcl2 transgenic fetal thymocytes with differentiation in OP9-DL1 and OP9 control cultures. The outcome of PU.1 expression in these cells depends on Notch/Delta signaling. PU.1 can efficiently divert thymocytes toward a myeloid-like state with multigene regulatory changes, but Notch/Delta signaling vetoes diversion. Gene expression analysis distinguishes sets of critical T lineage regulatory genes with different combinatorial responses to PU.1 and Notch/Delta signals, suggesting particular importance for inhibition of E proteins, Myb, and/or Gfi1 (growth factor independence 1) in diversion. However, Notch signaling only protects against diversion of cells that have undergone T lineage specification after Thy-1 and CD25 up-regulation. The results imply that in T cell precursors, Notch/Delta signaling normally acts to modulate and channel PU.1 transcriptional activities during the stages from T lineage specification until commitment.

Aire controls immunologic tolerance by inducing a battery of thymic transcripts encoding proteins characteristic of peripheral tissues. Its unusually broad effect is achieved by releasing RNA polymerase II paused just downstream of transcriptional start sites. We explored Aire's collaboration with the bromodomaincontaining protein, Brd4, uncovering an astonishing correspondence between those genes induced by Aire and those inhibited by a small-molecule bromodomain blocker. Aire:Brd4 binding depended on an orchestrated series of posttranslational modifications within Aire's caspase activation and recruitment domain. This interaction attracted P-TEFb, thereby mobilizing downstream transcriptional elongation and splicing machineries. Aire:Brd4 association was critical for tolerance induction, and its disruption could account for certain point mutations that provoke human autoimmune disease. Our findings evoke the possibility of unanticipated immunologic mechanisms subtending the potent antitumor effects of bromodomain blockers.