This week’s papers address the involvement of TGF-β signaling in the differentiation of TH17 cells, a checkpoint that restrains the antitumor and antivirus activities of natural killer cells, and a mechanism for erasing a parental epigenetic memory in plant embryos.
IMMUNOLOGY
Enabling TH17 differentiation
Zhang et al. found that transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) signaling is required for the differentiation of T helper 17 (TH17) cells because it derepresses expression of the receptor RORγt.
Unleashing NK cells
Molgora et al. report that knocking out the interleukin receptor IL-1R8 promotes the maturation and antitumor and antivirus activities of natural killer cells.
PLANT BIOLOGY
Erasing parental memories
Tao et al. show that the seed-specific transcription factor LEC1 reprograms the Arabidopsis embryo to erase the epigenetic memory of parental vernalization.