Novel signalling motifs in macrophage patterm recognition receptors

在进化的早期，单细胞生物体为了摄取食物，发展了一种称为吞噬作用(“大吃大喝”)的过程。这一过程适用于摧毁相互竞争的有机体或病原体，本质上是通过吃掉它们并通过类似于消化的过程杀死它们。在像我们这样的复杂生物体中，我们有专门的阿米巴样细胞，称为巨噬细胞，专门在组织中巡逻，吞噬/吞噬不仅是病原体，还包括我们自己的死亡细胞和废物。巨噬细胞通过被称为受体的表面结合蛋白来识别它们的目标。当巨噬细胞遇到一个潜在的目标时，它必须处理和传输大量的信息，包括目标的大小，它是无害的还是危险的，以及它是否可以移除它或是否应该招募增援。它是如何传递这些信息的还不清楚，这也是这个研究项目的重点。这项工作将阐明细胞信号的新机制，增加我们对吞噬和吞噬受体进化的理解，并在包括宿主防御、动态平衡和胚胎发育在内的许多过程中发挥作用。

Early in evolution single celled organisms developed a process called phagocytosis ("big-eating") in order to ingest food. This process was adapted for destroying competing organisms or pathogens, in essence by eating them and killing them through a process similar to digestion. In complex organisms such as ourselves, we have specialized amoeboid-like cells called macrophages that specialize in patrolling the tissues and phagocytosing/eating not only pathogens but also our own dead cells and waste products. Macrophages recognize their targets by surface bound proteins called receptors. When a macrophage encounters a potential target it must process and transmit a phenomenal amount of information including the size of the target, whether it is harmless or dangerous, and whether it can remove it or should recruit reinforcements. How it transmits this information is unclear and is the focus of this research program. This work will elucidate novel mechanisms of cellular signalling, increase our understanding on the evolution of phagocytosis and phagocytic receptors and has implications in many processes including host defence, homeostasis and embryonic development.