Abstract
Notch proteins regulate a broad spectrum of cell fate decisions and differentiation processes during fetal and postnatal development. Mammals have four Notch receptors that bind five different ligands. The function of Notch signaling during lymphopoiesis and T cell neoplasia, based on gain-of-function and conditional loss-of-function approaches for the Notch1 receptor, indicates Notch1 is essential in T cell lineage commitment. Recent studies have addressed the involvement of other Notch receptors and ligands as well as their downstream targets, demonstrating additional functions of Notch signaling in embryonic hematopoiesis, intrathymic T cell development, B cell development and peripheral T cell function.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Morgan, T.H. The theory of the gene. Am. Nat. 51, 513–544 (1917).
Wharton, K.A., Johansen, K.M., Xu, T. & Artavanis-Tsakonas, S. Nucleotide sequence from the neurogenic locus notch implies a gene product that shares homology with proteins containing EGF-like repeats. Cell 43, 567–581 (1985).
Kidd, S., Kelley, M.R. & Young, M.W. Sequence of the notch locus of Drosophila melanogaster: relationship of the encoded protein to mammalian clotting and growth factors. Mol. Cell. Biol. 6, 3094–30108 (1986).
Artavanis-Tsakonas, S., Rand, M.D. & Lake, R.J. Notch signaling: cell fate control and signal integration in development. Science 284, 770–776 (1999).
Greenwald, I. LIN-12/Notch signaling: lessons from worms and flies. Genes Dev. 12, 1751–1762 (1998).
Davis, R.L. & Turner, D.L. Vertebrate hairy and Enhancer of split related proteins: transcriptional repressors regulating cellular differentiation and embryonic patterning. Oncogene 20, 8342–8357 (2001).
Iso, T., Kedes, L. & Hamamori, Y. HES and HERP families: multiple effectors of the Notch signaling pathway. J. Cell. Physiol. 194, 237–255 (2003).
Rangarajan, A. et al. Notch signaling is a direct determinant of keratinocyte growth arrest and entry into differentiation. EMBO J. 20, 3427–3436 (2001).
Krebs, L.T., Deftos, M.L., Bevan, M.J. & Gridley, T. The Nrarp gene encodes an ankyrin-repeat protein that is transcriptionally regulated by the notch signaling pathway. Dev. Biol. 238, 110–119 (2001).
Deftos, M.L., Huang, E., Ojala, E.W., Forbush, K.A. & Bevan, M.J. Notch1 signaling promotes the maturation of CD4 and CD8 SP thymocytes. Immunity 13, 73–84 (2000).
Reizis, B. & Leder, P. Direct induction of T lymphocyte-specific gene expression by the mammalian Notch signaling pathway. Genes Dev. 16, 295–300 (2002).
Okajima, T. & Irvine, K.D. Regulation of notch signaling by o-linked fucose. Cell 111, 893–904 (2002).
Okajima, T., Xu, A. & Irvine, K.D. Modulation of notch-ligand binding by protein O-fucosyltransferase 1 and fringe. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 42340–42345 (2003).
Haines, N. & Irvine, K. Glycosylation regulates Notch signalling. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 4, 786–797 (2003).
Haltiwanger, R.S. & Stanley, P. Modulation of receptor signaling by glycosylation: fringe is an O-fucose-β1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1573, 328–335 (2002).
Matsuno, K., Diederich, R.J., Go, M.J., Blaumueller, C.M. & Artavanis-Tsakonas, S. Deltex acts as a positive regulator of Notch signaling through interactions with the Notch ankyrin repeats. Development 121, 2633–2644 (1995).
Frise, E., Knoblich, J.A., Younger-Shepherd, S., Jan, L.Y. & Jan, Y.N. The Drosophila Numb protein inhibits signaling of the Notch receptor during cell-cell interaction in sensory organ lineage. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 11925–11932 (1996).
Yun, T.J. & Bevan, M.J. Notch-regulated ankyrin-repeat protein inhibits Notch1 signaling: multiple Notch1 signaling pathways involved in T cell development. J. Immunol. 170, 5834–5841 (2003).
Kuroda, K. et al. Regulation of marginal zone B cell development by MINT, a suppressor of Notch/RBP-J signaling pathway. Immunity 18, 301–312 (2003).
Oswald, F. et al. SHARP is a novel component of the Notch/RBP-Jκ signalling pathway. Embo J. 21, 5417–5426 (2002).
Reynolds, T.C., Smith, S.D. & Sklar, J. Analysis of DNA surrounding the breakpoints of chromosomal translocations involving the β T cell receptor gene in human lymphoblastic neoplasms. Cell 50, 107–117 (1987).
Ellisen, L.W. et al. TAN-1, the human homolog of the Drosophila notch gene, is broken by chromosomal translocations in T lymphoblastic neoplasms. Cell 66, 649–661 (1991).
Pear, W.S. et al. Exclusive development of T cell neoplasms in mice transplanted with bone marrow expressing activated Notch alleles. J. Exp. Med. 183, 2283–2291 (1996).
Robey, E. et al. An activated form of Notch influences the choice between CD4 and CD8 T cell lineages. Cell 87, 483–492 (1996).
Bellavia, D. et al. Constitutive activation of NF-κB and T-cell leukemia/lymphoma in Notch3 transgenic mice. EMBO J. 19, 3337–3348 (2000).
Dorsch, M. et al. Ectopic expression of Delta4 impairs hematopoietic development and leads to lymphoproliferative disease. Blood 100, 2046–2055 (2002).
Yan, X.Q. et al. A novel Notch ligand, Dll4, induces T-cell leukemia/lymphoma when overexpressed in mice by retroviral-mediated gene transfer. Blood 98, 3793–3799 (2001).
Allman, D. et al. Separation of Notch1 promoted lineage commitment and expansion/transformation in developing T cells. J. Exp. Med. 194, 99–106 (2001).
Bellavia, D. et al. Combined expression of pTα and Notch3 in T cell leukemia identifies the requirement of preTCR for leukemogenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 3788–3793 (2002).
Weng, A.P. et al. Growth suppression of pre-T acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells by inhibition of notch signaling. Mol. Cell Biol. 23, 655–664 (2003).
Girard, L. et al. Frequent provirus insertional mutagenesis of Notch1 in thymomas of MMTVD/myc transgenic mice suggests a collaboration of c-myc and Notch1 for oncogenesis. Genes Dev. 10, 1930–1944 (1996).
Rohn, J.L., Lauring, A.S., Linenberger, M.L. & Overbaugh, J. Transduction of Notch2 in feline leukemia virus-induced thymic lymphoma. J. Virol. 70, 8071–8080 (1996).
Lauring, A.S. & Overbaugh, J. Evidence that an IRES within the Notch2 coding region can direct expression of a nuclear form of the protein. Mol. Cell 6, 939–945 (2000).
Feldman, B.J., Hampton, T. & Cleary, M.L. A carboxy-terminal deletion mutant of Notch1 accelerates lymphoid oncogenesis in E2A-PBX1 transgenic mice. Blood 96, 1906–1913 (2000).
Beverly, L.J. & Capobianco, A.J. Perturbation of Ikaros isoform selection by MLV integration is a cooperative event in Notch(IC)-induced T cell leukemogenesis. Cancer Cell 3, 551–564 (2003).
Talora, C. et al. Pre-TCR-triggered ERK signalling-dependent downregulation of E2A activity. EMBO Rep. 4, 1067–1072 (2003).
Jundt, F. et al. Activated Notch1 signaling promotes tumor cell proliferation and survival in Hodgkin and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Blood 99, 3398–3403 (2002).
Hubmann, R. et al. Notch2 is involved in the overexpression of CD23 in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood 99, 3742–3747 (2002).
Godin, I. & Cumano, A. The hare and the tortoise: an embryonic haematopoietic race. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2, 593–5604 (2002).
Pardanaud, L., Yassine, F. & Dieterlen-Lievre, F. Relationship between vasculogenesis, angiogenesis and haemopoiesis during avian ontogeny. Development 105, 473–485 (1989).
Choi, K., Kennedy, M., Kazarov, A., Papadimitriou, J.C. & Keller, G. A common precursor for hematopoietic and endothelial cells. Development 125, 725–732 (1998).
de Bruijn, M.F. et al. Hematopoietic stem cells localize to the endothelial cell layer in the midgestation mouse aorta. Immunity 16, 673–683 (2002).
Kumano, K. et al. Notch1 but not Notch2 is essential for generating hematopoietic stem cells from endothelial cells. Immunity 18, 699–711 (2003).
Calvi, L. et al. Osteoblastic cells regulate the haematopoietic stem cell niche. Nature 425, 841–846 (2003).
Stier, S., Cheng, T., Dombkowski, D., Carlesso, N. & Scadden, D.T. Notch1 activation increases hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal in vivo and favors lymphoid over myeloid lineage outcome. Blood 99, 2369–2378 (2002).
Varnum-Finney, B. et al. Pluripotent, cytokine-dependent, hematopoietic stem cells are immortalized by constitutive Notch1 signaling. Nat. Med. 6, 1278–1281 (2000).
Karanu, F.N. et al. The notch ligand jagged-1 represents a novel growth factor of human hematopoietic stem cells. J. Exp. Med. 192, 1365–1372 (2000).
Karanu, F.N., Yuefei, L., Gallacher, L., Sakano, S. & Bhatia, M. Differential response of primitive human CD34− and CD34+ hematopoietic cells to the Notch ligand Jagged-1. Leukemia 17, 1366–1374 (2003).
Varnum-Finney, B. et al. The Notch ligand, Jagged-1, influences the development of primitive hematopoietic precursor cells. Blood 91, 4084–4091 (1998).
Ohishi, K., Varnum-Finney, B. & Bernstein, I.D. Delta-1 enhances marrow and thymus repopulating ability of human CD34+CD38− cord blood cells. J. Clin. Invest. 110, 1165–1174 (2002).
Karanu, F.N. et al. Human homologues of Delta-1 and Delta-4 function as mitogenic regulators of primitive human hematopoietic cells. Blood 97, 1960–1967 (2001).
Varnum-Finney, B., Brashem-Stein, C. & Bernstein, I.D. Combined effects of Notch signaling and cytokines induce a multiple log increase in precursors with lymphoid and myeloid reconstituting ability. Blood 101, 1784–1789 (2003).
Carlesso, N., Aster, J.C., Sklar, J. & Scadden, D.T. Notch1-induced delay of human hematopoietic progenitor cell differentiation is associated with altered cell cycle kinetics. Blood 93, 838–848 (1999).
Kunisato, A. et al. HES-1 preserves purified hematopoietic stem cells ex vivo and accumulates side population cells in vivo. Blood 101, 1777–1783 (2003).
Radtke, F. et al. Deficient T cell fate specification in mice with an induced inactivation of Notch1. Immunity 10, 547–558 (1999).
Saito, T. et al. Notch2 is preferentially expressed in mature B cells and indispensable for marginal zone B lineage development. Immunity 18, 675–685 (2003).
Han, H. et al. Inducible gene knockout of transcription factor recombination signal binding protein-J reveals its essential role in T versus B lineage decision. Int. Immunol. 14, 637–645 (2002).
Milner, L.A. & Bigas, A. Notch as a mediator of cell fate determination in hematopoiesis: evidence and speculation. Blood 93, 2431–2448 (1999).
Ohishi, K., Katayama, N., Shiku, H., Varnum-Finney, B. & Bernstein, I. Notch signalling in hematopoiesis. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 2, 143–150 (2003).
Wilson, A., Ferrero, I., MacDonald, H.R. & Radtke, F. Cutting edge: An essential role for notch-1 in the development of both thymus-independent and -dependent T cells in the gut. J. Immunol. 165, 5397–5400 (2000).
Wilson, A., MacDonald, H.R. & Radtke, F. Notch 1-deficient common lymphoid precursors adopt a B cell fate in the thymus. J. Exp. Med. 194, 1003–1012 (2001).
Krebs, L. et al. Characterization of Notch3-deficient mice: Normal embryonic development. Genesis 3, 139–143 (2003).
Pui, J.C. et al. Notch1 expression in early lymphopoiesis influences B versus T lineage determination. Immunity 11, 299–308 (1999).
Kawamata, S., Du, C., Li, K. & Lavau, C. Overexpression of the Notch target genes Hes in vivo induces lymphoid and myeloid alterations. Oncogene 21, 3855–3863 (2002).
Souabni, A., Cobaleda, C., Schebesta, M. & Busslinger, M. Pax5 promotes B lymphopoiesis and blocks T cell development by repressing Notch1. Immunity 17, 781–793 (2002).
Cotta, C.V., Zhang, Z., Kim, H.G. & Klug, C.A. Pax5 determines B- versus T-cell fate and does not block early myeloid-lineage development. Blood 101, 4342–436 (2003).
Koch, U. et al. Subversion of the T/B lineage decision in the thymus by lunatic fringe-mediated inhibition of Notch-1. Immunity 15, 225–236 (2001).
Izon, D.J. et al. Deltex1 redirects lymphoid progenitors to the B cell lineage by antagonizing Notch1. Immunity 16, 231–243 (2002).
French, M.B. et al. Transgenic expression of numb inhibits notch signaling in immature thymocytes but does not alter T cell fate specification. J. Immunol. 168, 3173–3180 (2002).
Harman, B.C., Jenkinson, E.J. & Anderson, G. Entry into the thymic microenvironment triggers Notch activation in the earliest migrant T cell progenitors. J. Immunol. 170, 1299–1303 (2003).
Jiang, R. et al. Defects in limb, craniofacial, and thymic development in Jagged2 mutant mice. Genes Dev. 12, 1046–1057 (1998).
Jaleco, A.C. et al. Differential effects of Notch ligands Delta-1 and Jagged-1 in human lymphoid differentiation. J. Exp. Med. 194, 991–1002 (2001).
Schmitt, T.M. & Zuniga-Pflucker, J.C. Induction of T cell development from hematopoietic progenitor cells by delta-like-1 in vitro. Immunity 17, 749–756 (2002).
MacDonald, H.R., Radtke, F. & Wilson, A. T cell fate specification and αβ/γδ lineage commitment. Curr. Op. Immunol. 13, 219–224 (2001).
Washburn, T. et al. Notch activity influences the αβ versus γδ T cell lineage decision. Cell 88, 833–843 (1997).
Wolfer, A., Wilson, A., Nemir, M., MacDonald, H.R. & Radtke, F. Inactivation of Notch1 impairs VDJβ rearrangement and allows pre-TCR-independent survival of early αβ lineage thymocytes. Immunity 16, 869–879 (2002).
Kang, J., Volkmann, A. & Raulet, D.H. Evidence that γδ versus αβ T cell fate determination is initiated independently of T cell receptor signaling. J. Exp. Med. 193, 689–698 (2001).
Newton, K., Harris, A.W. & Strasser, A. FADD/MORT1 regulates the pre-TCR checkpoint and can function as a tumour suppressor. EMBO J. 19, 931–941 (2000).
Fowlkes, B.J. & Robey, E.A. A reassessment of the effect of activated Notch1 on CD4 and CD8 T cell development. J. Immunol. 169, 1817–1821 (2002).
Wolfer, A. et al. Inactivation of Notch 1 in immature thymocytes does not perturb CD4 or CD8 T cell development. Nat. Immunol. 2, 235–241 (2001).
Hoyne, G.F. et al. Serrate1-induced notch signalling regulates the decision between immunity and tolerance made by peripheral CD4+ T cells. Int. Immunol. 12, 177–185 (2000).
Yvon, E.S. et al. Over expression of the Notch ligand, Jagged-1 induces alloantigen-specific human regulatory T cells. Blood 102, 3815–3821 (2003).
Vigouroux, S. et al. Induction of antigen-specific regulatory T cells following overexpression of a Notch ligand by human B lymphocytes. J. Virol. 77, 10872–10880 (2003).
Anastasi, E. et al. Expression of activated Notch3 in transgenic mice enhances generation of T regulatory cells and protects against experimental autoimmune diabetes. J. Immunol. 171, 4504–4511 (2003).
Murphy, K.M. & Reiner, S.L. The lineage decisions of helper T cells. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2, 933–944 (2002).
Maekawa, Y. et al. Delta1-Notch3 interactions bias the functional differentiation of activated CD4+ T cells. Immunity 19, 549–559 (2003).
Wong, K. et al. Notch ligation by Delta1 inhibits peripheral immune responses to transplantation antigens by a CD8+ cell-dependent mechanism. J. Clin. Inv. 112, 1741–1750 (2003).
Adler, S.H. et al. Notch signaling augments T cell responsiveness by enhancing CD25 expression. J. Immunol. 171, 2896–2903 (2003).
Palaga, T., Miele, L., Golde, T.E. & Osborne, B.A. TCR-mediated notch signaling regulates proliferation and IFN-γ production in peripheral T cells. J. Immunol. 171, 3019–3024 (2003).
Radtke, F., Wilson, A., Ernst, B. & MacDonald, H.R. The role of Notch signaling during hematopoietic lineage commitment. Immunol. Rev. 187, 65–74 (2002).
Tanigaki, K. et al. Notch-RBP-J signaling is involved in cell fate determination of marginal zone B cells. Nat. Immunol. 3, 443–450 (2002).
Huang, E.Y., Gallegos, A.M., Richards, S.M., Lehar, S.M. & Bevan, M.J. Surface expression of Notch1 on thymocytes: correlation with the double-negative to double-positive transition. J. Immunol. 171, 2296–2304 (2003).
Hozumi, K., Abe, N., Chiba, S., Hirai, H. & Habu, S. Active form of Notch members can enforce T lymphopoiesis on lymphoid progenitors in the monolayer culture specific for B cell development. J. Immunol. 170, 4973–4979 (2003).
Hu, Q. et al. F3/contactin acts as a functional ligand for Notch during oligodendrocyte. Cell 2003 115, 163–175 (2003).
Parks, A.L., Klueg, K.M., Stout, J.R. & Muskavitch, M.A. Ligand endocytosis drives receptor dissociation and activation in the Notch pathway. Development 127, 1373–1385 (2000).
Kao, H. et al. A histone deacetylase corepressor complex regulates the Notch signal. Genes Dev. 1998 15, 2269–2277 (1998).
Hsieh, J.J., Zhou, S., Chen, L., Young, D.B. & Hayward, S.D. CIR, a corepressor linking the DNA binding factor CBF1 to the histone. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 23–28 (1999).
Zhou, S. et al. SKIP, a CBF1-associated protein, interacts with the ankyrin repeat domain CIR, a corepressor linking the DNA binding factor CBF1 to the histone. Mol. Cell Biol. 20, 2400–2410 (2000).
Jeffries, S., Robbins, D.J. & Capobianco, A.J. Characterization of a high-molecular-weight Notch complex in the nucleus. Mol. Cell Biol. 11, 3927–3941 (2002).
Wu, L. et al. MAML1, a human homologue of Drosophila mastermind, is a transcriptional. Nat. Genet. 4, 484–489 (2000).
Jones, P. et al. Stromal expression of Jagged 1 promotes colony formation by fetal hematopoietic progenitor cells. Blood 92, 1505–1511 (1998).
Han, W., Ye, Q. & Moore, M.A. A soluble form of human Delta-like-1 inhibits differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor cells. Blood 95, 1616–1625 (2000).
Tsai, S., Fero, J. & Bartelmez, S. Mouse Jagged2 is differentially expressed in hematopoietic progenitors and endothelial cells and promotes the survival and proliferation of hematopoietic progenitors by direct cell-to-cell contact. Blood 96, 950–957 (2000).
Singh, N., Phillips, R.A., Iscove, N.N. & Egan, S.E. Expression of notch receptors, notch ligands, and fringe genes in hematopoiesis. Exp. Hematol. 28, 527–534 (2000).
Jonsson, J.I., Xiang, Z., Pettersson, M., Lardelli, M. & Nilsson, G. Distinct and regulated expression of Notch receptors in hematopoietic lineages and during myeloid differentiation. Eur. J. Immunol. 31, 3240–3247 (2001).
Walker, L., Carlson, A., Tan-Pertel, H.T., Weinmaster, G. & Gasson, J. The notch receptor and its ligands are selectively expressed during hematopoietic development in the mouse. Stem Cells 19, 543–552 (2001).
Yamaguchi, E. et al. Expression of Notch ligands, Jagged1, 2 and Delta1 in antigen presenting cells in mice. Immunol. Lett. 81, 59–64 (2002).
Weijzen, S. et al. The Notch ligand Jagged-1 is able to induce maturation of monocyte-derived human dendritic cells. J. Immunol. 169, 4273–4278 (2002).
Anderson, G., Pongracz, J., Parnell, S. & Jenkinson, E.J. Notch ligand-bearing thymic epithelial cells initiate and sustain Notch signaling in thymocytes independently of T cell receptor signaling. Eur. J. Immunol. 31, 3349–3354 (2001).
Hasserjian, R.P., Aster, J.C., Davi, F., Weinberg, D.S. & Sklar, J. Modulated expression of notch1 during thymocyte development. Blood 88, 970–976 (1996).
Felli, M.P. et al. Expression pattern of notch1, 2 and 3 and Jagged1 and 2 in lymphoid and stromal thymus components: distinct ligand-receptor interactions in intrathymic T cell development. Int. Immunol. 11, 1017–1025 (1999).
Kaneta, M. et al. A role for pref-1 and HES-1 in thymocyte development. J. Immunol. 164, 256–264 (2000).
Acknowledgements
We thank all our colleagues who shared unpublished results with us and apologize to those whose work was not cited because of space limitations. F.R. and S.M. are supported in part by grants from the Swiss Cancer League, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Leenaards Foundation, the EMBO Young Investigator Program and the Roche Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Radtke, F., Wilson, A., Mancini, S. et al. Notch regulation of lymphocyte development and function. Nat Immunol 5, 247–253 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni1045
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni1045
This article is cited by
-
PD-1 signalling defines and protects leukaemic stem cells from T cell receptor-induced cell death in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
Nature Cell Biology (2023)
-
Age as a risk factor in vasculitis
Seminars in Immunopathology (2022)
-
The vasculature niches required for hematopoiesis
Journal of Molecular Medicine (2022)
-
Chidamide inhibits the NOTCH1-MYC signaling axis in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Frontiers of Medicine (2022)
-
Notch Signaling is Required for Dendritic Cell Maturation and T Cell Expansion in Paracoccidioidomycosis
Mycopathologia (2018)