B cell residency but not T cell-independent IgA switching in the gut requires innate lymphoid cells

Immunoglobulin A (IgA)-producing plasma cells derived from conventional B cells in the gut play an important role in maintaining the homeostasis of gut flora. Both T cell-dependent and T cell-independent IgA class switching occurs in the lymphoid structures in the gut, whose formation depends on lymphoid tissue inducers (LTis), a subset of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). However, our knowledge on the functions of ILCs, the innate counter parts of CD4 T helper cells, in promoting IgA production is still limited. By cell adoptive transfer and utilizing a unique mouse strain, we demonstrated that the generation of IgA-producing plasma cells from B cells in the gut occurred efficiently in the absence of both T cells and ILCs and without engaging TGFß signaling. Nevertheless, B cell recruitment and/or retention in the gut required NKp46-CCR6+ LTis. Therefore, while ILCs contribute to the accumulation of B cells in the gut through inducing lymphoid structure formation, they are not essential for the T cell-independent generation of IgA-producing plasma cells. Overall design: Live Lin-CD127+ KLRG1-NK1.1-NKp46-CCR6+ lymphoid tissue inducer (LTi) cells from small intestine lamina propria (siLP) of Gata3+/+ and Gata3fl/flVavCre mice were used for RNA-Seq analysis.