Dendritic cells (DCs) are required to establish thymic central tolerance. Here Srinivasan et al. use single-cell transcriptomics to define thymic conventional dendritic cell (cDC) subsets and find that CD8+ single-positive thymocytes modulate the thymus environment to regulate plasmacytoid DC and cDC2 homeostasis and interferon signatures in DCs, while CD4+ single-positive thymocytes regulate cDC1 activation via cognate and CD40L–CD40 interactions.
- Jayashree Srinivasan
- Colin R. Moore
- Lauren I. R. Ehrlich
