Mapping the stochastic sequence of individual ligand-receptor binding events to cellular activation: T cells act on the rare events.

ABSTRACT: T cell receptor (TCR) binding to agonist peptide major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) triggers signaling events that initiate T cell responses. This system is remarkably sensitive, requiring only a few binding events to successfully activate a cellular response. On average, activating pMHC ligands exhibit mean dwell times of at least a few seconds when bound to the TCR. However, a T cell accumulates pMHC-TCR interactions as a stochastic series of discrete, single-molecule binding events whose individual dwell times are broadly distributed. With activation occurring in response to only a handful of such binding events, individual cells are unlikely to experience the average binding time. Here, we mapped the ensemble of pMHC-TCR binding events in space and time while simultaneously monito

SUBMITTER: Lin JJY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6598675 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature