Fig. 7: Cbfβ regulates iNKT cell early commitment.

a iNKT ST0 pseudotime plot; feature plots depicting single-cell gene expression trajectory of Cbfβ, Egr2, and Slamf6 at ST0 iNKT cells development (Fig. 3f). b Violin plots of Cbfβ expression in different stages of iNKT cells, and Cbfβ expression in different clusters (C2, C9, C4, and C14) from ST0 iNKT cells. c Representative flow plots of iNKT cells from Cbfβ KO and WT mice (left). Bar graphs represent mean ± SD of iNKT cell frequency and iNKT cell number (right), n = 5 for Cbfβ KO and WT controls. Data represent three independent experiments. d Representative flow plots of different stages of iNKT (after anti-CD1d-tetramer enrichment) from Cbfβ KO and WT mice (left). Bar graphs represent mean ± SD of iNKT cell frequency and iNKT cell number in Cbfβ KO and WT controls (right). e Representative flow plots of CD8 and CD4 expression in ST0 iNKT cells from Cbfβ KO and WT controls (left). Bar graph represents means ± SD of DP, DN, and CD4 SP ± SD (right). WT controls, n = 6; Cbfβ KO, n = 7. Data represent three independent experiments, data were analyzed by a two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05. f, g Histogram showing PLZF expression (f) and Ki-67 expression (g) in ST1 iNKT cells from Cbfβ KO and WT mice. Bar graph represents means ± SD of indicated iNKT population. WT, n = 4. Cbfβ KO, n = 6. Data represent two independent experiments, and were analyzed by a two-sided unpaired t test, *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001. h Representative flow plots of PLZF vs T-bet expression in ST1 iNKT cells from Cbfβ KO and WT mice. i Representative flow plots of PLZF vs RORγt expression in ST2 iNKT cells from Cbfβ KO and WT mice. j The speculated schematic model of mouse iNKT cell developmental trajectory (left) and the role of Cbfβ in iNKT cell development (right).