Commensals and immune cells speak in the language of endogenous retroviruses

Paula F Zamora; Jennifer M Bomberger

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.013

Commensals and immune cells speak in the language of endogenous retroviruses

Cell. 2021 Jul 8;184(14):3593-3594. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.013.

Authors

Paula F Zamora¹, Jennifer M Bomberger²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
² Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Electronic address: jbomb@pitt.edu.

PMID: 34242560
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.013

Abstract

How the microbiome and mucosal environment mediate homeostatic immunity in the skin is not well understood. In this issue of Cell, Lima-Junior and colleagues report that skin commensal bacteria induce endogenous retrovirus (ERV) expression and antiviral immune responses in keratinocytes, favoring the priming of beneficial commensal-specific T cell subsets that promote tissue homeostasis.

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MeSH terms

Bacteria
Endogenous Retroviruses* / genetics
Microbiota*
Mucous Membrane
T-Lymphocyte Subsets