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.

Expression of tissue-restricted self-antigens (TRAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is essential for self-tolerance induction and prevents autoimmunity, with each TRA being expressed in only a few mTECs. How this process is regulated in single mTECs and coordinated at the population level, such that the varied single-cell patterns add up to faithfully represent TRAs, is poorly understood. Here we used single-cell RNA-sequencing and provide evidence for numerous recurring TRA co-expression patterns, each present in only a subset of mTECs. Co-expressed genes clustered in the genome and showed enhanced chromatin accessibility. Our findings characterize TRA expression in mTECs as a coordinated process, which might involve local re-modeling of chromatin and thus ensures a comprehensive representation of the immunological self.