Antigen specificity, not tissue compartment, determines clonal sharing among respiratory tract CD8 resident memory T cells

Abstract

Tissue-resident memory (Trm) CD8+ T cells in the upper and lower respiratory tract play an instrumental role in combatting influenza virus. While CD8+ Trm populations in these compartments differ in longevity and developmental requirements, it remains unclear whether they share clonotypes, indicating a common origin, or are seeded by distinct T-cell clones. Using a mouse model of influenza virus infection, we investigated the T-cell receptor (TCR) composition of CD8+ Trm specific for two immunodominant influenza-specific CD8+ T-cell epitopes, derived from the nucleoprotein (NP366-374) and polymerase acidic protein (PA224-233). TCRαβ repertoire analysis of NP366-374-specific CD8+ T cells from..