The Fas ligand (FasL) is a key death factor of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells. It is stored intracellularly as a transmembrane protein of secretory lysosomes. Upon activation, these vesicles are transported to the cytotoxic immunological synapse (IS), and FasL becomes exposed to the cell surface to trigger cell death through ligation of its receptor Fas (CD95) on the target cell. We propose that the FasL-associated adaptor protein Nck is involved in the actin-dependent transport of FasL-bearing secretory lysosomes to the IS. Nck binds to the proline-rich portion of FasL and alters its subcellular distribution when coexpressed in 293T cells. In T lymphocytes, endogenous Nck partially colocalizes with lysosome-associated FasL. When T cell clones or lines are exposed to target cells, both proteins and other components of secretory lysosomes (i.e., granzyme B or cathepsin D) are transported to the cell-cell interface. The present data suggest that T cell receptor engagement provokes a rapid, tyrosine kinase-and actin-dependent transport of Nck-associated FasL-carrying lysosomes to the contact area. Our observations support the previous notion that the unique cytoplasmic tail of FasL is crucial for its directed transport to the cell surface and into the assembling cytotoxic IS.protein-protein interaction ͉ Src homology 3 domain ͉ secretory lysosomes ͉ T lymphocytes T he Fas ligand (FasL) (CD95L, APO1-L, and TNFSF6) is a type-II transmembrane protein belonging to the TNF family of death factors (1, 2). During primary stimulation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells, newly synthesized FasL is directed to and stored in specialized secretory lysosomes (3, 4). Thus, in activated human T cells, FasL is a transmembrane component of these lytic granules that also contain granzymes and pore-forming perforin monomers (5). Upon interaction with a target cell, the lipid bilayer of the secretory lysosomes is believed to fuse with the plasma membrane, thereby releasing the soluble factors into the synapse and presenting FasL on the cell surface (4, 6). The molecular mechanisms that regulate the targeting of FasL to secretory lysosomes and the activation-dependent transport of these organelles to the immunological synapse (IS) are so far unknown.Because the intracellular localization of FasL depends on its proline-rich domain (PRD) (7), the identification and functional analysis of FasL PRD-interacting proteins should provide more information on regulators of the lysosomal association of FasL and its activation-dependent transport to the IS. From the various proteins that were identified as potential FasL interactors (8, 9), the adaptor protein Nck attracted our attention in the context of T cell receptor (TCR)-induced vesicular transport and cytoskeletal reorganization. Nck is an adaptor protein that is built of a C-terminal Src homology (SH) 2 domain and three SH3 domains (Fig. 1A). The main function of Nck is the regulation of an activation-dependent actin filament formation through its interacti...