Signaling at the immune synapse: vesicular trafficking takes the stage

Abstract

In this issue of Nature Immunology, Larghi and colleagues1 report the involvement of the SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive protein-attachment protein receptor) vesicle-associated membrane protein 7 (VAMP7), which regulates vesicular trafficking to the neurological synapse, in signaling downstream of the T-cell antigen receptor (TCR) and T-cell activation. Namely, they demonstrate that VAMP7 promotes the recruitment to TCR activation sites of the intracellular vesicular pool of the LAT (linker for activation of T cells) adaptor, thereby assisting the assembly of the LAT signalosome. This finding highlights vesicular trafficking to the immunological synapse as a central determinant in the translation of TCR triggering into the assembly of multimolecular signaling complexes that are known to orchestrate not only the activation of T cells, but also their development and function.