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Poholek and colleagues show that, during allergic airway inflammation, the transcription factor Blimp-1 regulates CD4⁺T_H2 cell migration to the lung and define anatomical locations in mediastinal lymph nodes where IL-2 programming induces T_H2 cell polarization.

The signals controlling T_reg cell homeostasis and survival are still being determined. Liston and colleagues demonstrate that peripheral T_reg cells depend critically on IL-2 and the survival factor Mcl-1 but not on Bcl-2.

Casey Weaver recounts how his group’s discovery of the T_H17 pathway resolved several conundrums that had arisen in the wake of the original T_H1–T_H2 hypothesis.

Activation of the nuclear hormone receptor CAR in T cells protects the small intestine against bile acid-driven inflammation.

The murine enteropathogen Citrobacter rodentium targets a specific subset of absorptive intestinal epithelial cells in the mid–distal colon, which stimulate T cells to produce sustained IL-22 signals to mitigate further spread of the pathogen.

Disrupting the normal maturation of the infant gut microbiota induced late-onset sepsis in mice, which could be prevented by administering specific bacteria.

iT_reg cells and T_H17 cells share developmental steps, but their cellular fate depends on environmental cues. Weaver and colleagues show that IL-1 signaling alters the STAT3-STAT5 balance to skew cellular differentiation towards T_H17 CD4⁺ T cells.

These authors propose that the T helper 17 cell and induced regulatory T cell lineages were the first T cells of the adaptive immune system to evolve in vertebrates as a means to counter-regulate immune responses in the gut to foster a large, diverse commensal microbiota for the benefit of the host.

This Consensus Statement clarifies the existing subset-based nomenclature for T cells. Furthermore, it proposes an alternative modular nomenclature that is designed to be brief and flexible and to avoid ambiguity and unwanted implications. The authors also provide guidance on how T cell nomenclature should be described in research papers.

Naive CD4 and CD8 T cells give rise to effector and long-lived memory T cells after activation by antigen. This paper provides evidence that memory CD4 T cells, similar to their CD8 counterparts, differentiate in a linear fashion from effector cells rather than by an alternative differentiation pathway.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across different populations highlights new risk loci and provides a genetic risk score that can stratify prostate cancer risk across ancestries.

T_H17 cells comprise a subset of CD4⁺ T cells that coordinate the inflammatory response in host defence but are pathogenic in autoimmunity. Here, the AP-1 transcription factor BATF is shown to have a critical role in T_H17 cell differentiation, with Batf^−/− mice displaying a defect in T_H17 differentiation and resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

Follicular helper T cells promote antibody production by B cells, and regulatory B cells, in turn, can restrain T cell activation. Here, Khan et al. show that PD-L1 plays a critical role in regulatory B cell function, curbing excessive immune responses by engaging the PD-1 receptor on follicular helper T cells.

Analysis of a mouse model shows that during the course of an immune response, helper T cells undergo functional reprogramming to transdifferentiate into regulatory T cells; this T cell plasticity could possibly be exploited to develop better therapies for restoring immune tolerance in autoimmune diseases.

T helper-17 cells, which are involved in immune responses, arise from a pool of precursor cells. It emerges that their differentiation is partly mediated by the IL-21 protein, which originates from the helper cells themselves.

Targeted protein degradation of cell-surface glycoproteins suppresses cancer in mice.

Fine-scale estimates of the prevalence of HIV in adults across sub-Saharan Africa reveal substantial within-country variation and local differences in both the direction and rate of change in the prevalence of HIV between 2000 and 2017.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

An analysis of eight ultra-faint galaxies during the epoch of reionization with absolute magnitudes between −17 mag and −15  mag shows that most of the photons that reionized the Universe come from dwarf galaxies.

The vitamin-A metabolite retinoic acid normally favours immune tolerance in the gut. But in coeliac disease — an intestinal inflammatory disorder due to adverse reactivity to a dietary protein — it may do just the opposite. See Letter p.220

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

In this disease mapping study, the authors estimate disability-adjusted life year rates for three of the major causes of mortality for children under five 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. They identify significant heterogeneity at the subnational level, highlighting the need for a targeted intervention approach.

Combining neural manipulation in freely behaving animals, physiological studies and electron microscopy reconstruction in the Drosophila larva identifies a complex multilsensory circuit involved in the selection of larval escape modes that exhibits a multilevel multimodal convergence architecture.

Geospatial modelling shows an overall decline in morbidity and mortality due to lower respiratory infections in Africa from 2000 to 2017, but also identifies subnational areas with residual high risk.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

A violation of Lorentz symmetry would represent a fundamental departure from the physics of the standard model. Searching for anomalous neutrino oscillations, the IceCube collaboration reports no violation, and puts stringent bounds on its existence.

Richard Houlston and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for colorectal cancer. They report three loci newly associated with colorectal cancer, bringing the total number of common susceptibility loci to 20.

IceCube has measured the absorption of atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos in the Earth, and found that the interaction cross-section of multi-TeV neutrinos is within 50 per cent of the predictions of the standard model.

The risk of germline copy number variants (CNVs) in BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathogenic variant carriers in breast cancer is assessed, with CNVs overlapping SULT1A1 decreasing breast cancer risk in BRCA1 carriers.