Single Cell Map of RORgt Lineage APCs in Early Life

A key feature of immune tolerance is the ability to distinguish pathogens from innocuous signals including dietary antigens, but the precise mechanisms of oral tolerance induction and the key cellular actors have remained unclear. Here we present a single cell map of RORγt-lineage antigen-presenting cells (APCs), specifically RORγt-lineage cells expressing the Autoimmune Regulator (Aire) gene – referred to as RORγt eTACs - that are present in early life. We have previously shown that these are a critical APC population required for oral tolerance induction in adult mice. We obtained mLN, spleen and other LNs (cervical, inguinal, axillary, brachial, and para-aortic) from two-week-old RORγt-lineage mice (RORγt-Cre×R26-lsl-tdTmt) and FACS-sorted tdTmt+ MHCII+ cells for subsequent scRNA-seq