RORγt-expressing dendritic cells are functionally versatile and evolutionarily conserved antigen-presenting cells

Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are potent antigen- presenting cells (APCs) that integrate signals from their environment allowing them to direct situation- adapted immunity. Thereby they harbor great potential for being targeted in vaccination, autoimmunity, and cancer. Here, we use fate mapping, functional analyses, and comparative cross- species transcriptomics to show that ROR gamma t+DCs are a conserved, functionally versatile, and transcriptionally distinct type of DCs. ROR gamma t+ DCs entail various populations described in different contexts including Janus cells/ROR gamma t- expressing extrathymic Aire- expressing cells (eTACs), subtypes of Thetis cells, ROR gamma t+-DC (R- DC) like cells, cDC2C and ACY3+ DCs. We show that in response to inflammatory triggers, ROR gamma t+ DCs can migrate to lymph nodes and in the spleen can activate na & iuml;ve CD4+ T cells. These findings expand the functional repertoire of ROR gamma t+ DCs beyond the known role of eTACs and Thetis cells in inducing T cell tolerance to self- antigens and intestinal microbes in mice. We further show that ROR gamma t+ DCs with proinflammatory features accumulate in autoimmune neuroinflammation in mice and men. Thus, our work establishes ROR gamma t+ DCs as immune sentinel cells that exhibit a broad functional spectrum ranging from inducing peripheral T cell tolerance to T cell activation depending on signals they integrate from their environment.