Abstract

Dectin-1 is a C-type lectin that recognizes beta-glucan in the cell walls of fungi and plays an important role in anti-fungal immunity. It signals via tyrosine kinase Syk and adaptor protein Card9 to activate NF-kappaB leading to proinflammatory cytokine production in dendritic cells (DCs). Other than this, not much else is known of the mechanism of Dectin-1 signaling. We demonstrate here that stimulation of DCs with zymosan triggers an intracellular Ca2+ flux that can be attenuated by a blocking anti-Dectin-1 antibody or by pre-treatment of cells with the phospholipase C (PLC) gamma-inhibitor U73122, suggesting that Dectin-1 signals via a PLCgamma pathway to induce Ca2+ flux in DCs. Interestingly, treatment of DCs with particulate curdlan, which specifically engages Dectin-1, results in the phosphorylation of both PLCgamma1 and PLCgamma2. However, we show that PLCgamma2 is the critical enzyme for Dectin-1 signaling in DCs. PLCgamma2-deficient DCs have drastic impairment of Ca2+ signaling and are defective in their secretion of interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-23, and tumor necrosis factor alpha. PLCgamma2-deficient DCs also exhibit impaired activation of ERK and JNK MAPKs and AP-1 and NFAT transcription factors in response to Dectin-1 stimulation. In addition, PLCgamma2-deficient DCs are also impaired in their activation of NF-kappaB upon Dectin-1 engagement due to defective assembly of the Card9-Bcl10-Malt1 complex and impaired IKKalpha/beta activation and IkappaBalpha degradation. Thus, our data indicate that pattern recognition receptors such as Dectin-1 could elicit Ca2+ signaling and that PLCgamma2 is a critical player in the Dectin-1 signal transduction pathway.