Disorderly conduct in γδ versus αβ T cell lineage commitment

The mechanism of T cell precursor commitment to the gamma delta or alpha beta T cell lineage remains unclear. While TCR signal strength has emerged as a key factor in lineage commitment based on TCR transgenic models, the entire TCR repertoire may not possess the same discriminatory power. A counterbalance to the TCR as the lineage determinant is the pre-existing heterogeneity in gene expression among precursors, which suggests that single precursors are unlikely to respond homogeneously to a given instructive signal. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.