Gene expression profiling of C2, C1 and C0 iNKT cell subset

We identified a novel subset of iNKT cells, C2 iNKT cells, that circulate in the periphery. Correspondingly, we characterized the tissue-resident iNKT cell subset, C1 iNKT cells. We also found the precursor of these two subsets of iNKT cells, C0 iNKT cells in thymus. The development and terminal maturation of C2 iNKT cells completely depended on the thymic epithelial IL-15 niche, whereas C1 iNKT cells were regulated also by local IL-15 niches in peripheral tissues. C2 iNKT cells expressed high levels of genes related to cytotoxicity and exhibited more NK cell-like features. Here we characterized the C2 iNKT cells, C1 iNKT cells, and C0 iNKT cells using RNA-seq. We also performed RNA-seq for CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and NK cells as a comparison. To investigate the effect of CD4, we performed the RNA-seq for the CD4+ and CD4- C2 iNKT cells. Two hundred cells of each cell type were sorted from the thymus of mice at 6 weeks