An invariant VLR-like receptor refines the T-like cell framework in lamprey
Ming Geng, Kang Li, Yating Zhu, Baohua Zou, Jun Li, Haokai Chen, Zhichao Fang, Xinying Jiao, Xue Zhai, Peng Hu, Xiumei Wei, Yue Pang, Jialong Yang · 2026
Read An invariant VLR-like receptor refines the T-like cell framework in lamprey by Ming Geng, Kang Li, Yating Zhu, Baohua Zou, Jun Li, Haokai Chen, Zhichao Fang, Xinying Jiao, Xue Zhai, Peng Hu, Xiumei Wei, Yue Pang, Jialong Yang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13408188.txt.
Description
Ming Geng and colleagues report in 2026 the discovery of an unusual immune receptor in the lamprey Lethenteron reissneri. Lampreys are jawless fish whose adaptive immunity runs on variable lymphocyte receptors rather than the antibodies and T-cell receptors of jawed animals. Whether single cells juggle several receptor types was unresolved.
Single-cell gene profiling revealed a receptor that stays fixed rather than diversifying, sits anchored on T-like cells, and responds to stimulation with growth signals typical of those cells. The cells carrying it did not behave like B-like cells. Some also carried a second, diversified receptor, and the two appear to interact. Readers in evolutionary immunology get a refined picture of how lamprey T-like cells may pair a constant coordinator with a variable partner.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ming Geng, Kang Li, Yating Zhu, Baohua Zou, Jun Li, Haokai Chen, Zhichao Fang, Xinying Jiao, Xue Zhai, Peng Hu, Xiumei Wei, Yue Pang, Jialong Yang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 67493 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |