Differential requirement for Nfil3 during NK cell development

Nfil3 has multiple functions during conventional NK cell and thymic NK cell development. Nfil3 controls NK cell development from the earliest committed NK cell progenitor stage. Nfil3-/- prepro NK cells retained T-cell potential due to the failure to repress T cell specific genes. At later stages of NK cell development, Nfil3 regulates the formation of mature NK cells by promoting directly or indirectly the expression of transcription factor Eomes. We also demonstrate that Nfil3 is important for thymic NK cell development whereas Trail+ immature NK cells generated in the bone marrow of neonates and in the adult liver develop independent of Nfil3 function. We used microarrays to analyse the changes in gene expression due to the presence or absence of Nfil3, both in prepro NK cells and ALP cells (all lymphoid progenitors) Samples were obtained on two experimentation dates. Replicate 1 was processed in April 2012, replicate 2 was processed in May 2012.