Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, USA.
In this issue of Immunity, studies from Atherly et al (2006) and Broussard et al. (2006) show that mice deficient in Tec kinases support development of a population of CD8(+) T cells with "innate-immune" properties. The similarity of these cells to NKT and MHC-class-Ib-restricted T cells suggests a common developmental pathway.