Suppressing the killer instinct

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphoid cells that have adopted activating and inhibitory signaling mechanisms enabling them to be tolerant of normal cells but to distinguish and eliminate tumor cells and virus-infected cells. In this issue of Science Signaling, Matalon et al. show how inhibitory receptors disrupt NK cell activation by stimulating dephosphorylation of the adaptor protein LAT (linker of activated T cells) and phospholipase C-gamma by the phosphatase SHP-1 [Src homology 2 (SH2) domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 1], as well as ubiquitylation of LAT by Cbl family E3 ubiquitin ligases.