Project description:Fungal spores, abundant in the environment, are a major cause of asthma. But the precise host response that triggers fungal allergic airway inflammation remains unclear. We found that CD11c+ DCs and CD4+ T cells are essential for development of airway inflammation in mice when repeatedly exposed to inhaled spores. To delinate which DC subsets are mediating fungal allergic inflammation we undertook single cell RNAseq of DCs isolated from the lungs of mice exposed to fungal spores. This identified precise subsets altered upon spore exposure and following targeted removal identified distinct DC subsets (Mgl2+ cDC2s) that are essential for fungal allergic airway inflammation.
