Antigen-driven EGR2 expression is required for exhausted CD8+ T cell stability and maintenance [RNA-seq II]

In this study, we examined the role of the transcriptional regulator EGR2 in CD8+ T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infection. Flow cytometric analysis indicated that EGR2 is expressed selectively within the progenitor exhausted subset, however a subpopulation of progenitor exhausted cells did not express in EGR2. To define the differences between the EGR2+ and EGR2- progenitor exhausted cells, GFP+ and GFP- polyclonal progenitor exhausted (ie. CD44int-hiPD-1+Slamf6+Tim3-) CD8+ T cells were sorted from Egr2-GFP reporter mice at day 20 p.i. with chronic LCMV-Cl13, and analysed by RNAseq. The resulting data demonstrated that GFP- progenitor cells have a more differentiated phenotype. The transcriptome of Egr2-GFP reporter positive and negative progenitor exhausted CD8+ T cells was examined by RNAseq.