{"doi":"10.1111/imr.12957","title":"Genome regulation in innate and adaptive immune cells","abstract":"The immune system is composed of a diverse array of cells that are required to protect the body from a variety of pathogenic insults. This includes cells comprising the innate and adaptive branches of the immune response, such as natural killer cells, macrophages, and innate lymphoid cells, as well as T and B cells, respectively. A precise series of events is needed for the differentiation and activation of innate and adaptive immune cells, and decades of research has contributed to our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that regulate these processes. Notably, the epigenetic and gene regulation principles defined in innate and adaptive immune cells have provided insight into other developmental systems as well by shedding light on the conserved roles for transcription factor families and mechanistic events in cellular differentiation decisions. This has allowed researchers to rapidly advance our understanding of mechanistic principles by using the information defined in the immune system to guide and extend knowledge in diverse cellular settings. In this special issue, the latest advances in genome regulation are discussed from the perspectives of 15 early and mid-career investigators who are performing cutting-edge research in this discipline. They explore mechanistic principles defined in innate and adaptive immune cells, and several articles highlight the role for conserved regulatory events in diverse cell types. Although immunologists often focus on a specific cell of interest, many articles explore the conservation of mechanisms between cell types and discuss how specificity is achieved in different settings. The content of the reviews covers a broad range of mechanisms that regulate the genome, including basic transcription principles, the role for transcription factor families, epigenetics, enhancers, genome organization, long non-coding RNAs, post-transcriptional regulation, and the impact of tissue localization and the microenvironment on genome regulation. Taken together, this special issue provides a breadth of knowledge about genome regulation and gives perspectives from rising leaders in this field about directions of high importance for future research. DNA is wrapped around histones to form nucleosomes, and this is commonly referred to as chromatin. Both DNA methylation states and the status of chromatin accessibility influence the downstream regulatory events required for active transcription. Dr Youngblood and colleagues explore the role for DNA methylation in regulating effector and memory T cell differentiation, as well as dysregulated states associated with exhaustion in chronic infections and cancer.1 They also discuss how a DNA methylation index they developed can predict aspects of T cell differentiation states in mouse and human, and the relevance of this index for understanding efficacy of T cell responses in human diseases. Following the theme of DNA methylation, Dr Tsagaratou examines the role for the TET family of DNA demethylases in immune cell development and differentiation and discusses how the dysregulated expression of TET proteins can have pathogenic consequences in mouse and human disease.2 The review also provides valuable information about the diversity of DNA modifications mediated by TET proteins, including 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) and oxidized forms of cytosine, and it talks about new tools to define these unique modifications and their functions. The regulation of DNA methylation, histone modifications, and chromatin accessibility during immune cell differentiation has been the focus of many research efforts, and the article by Dr Scharer and colleagues discusses the role for these events in the context of B cell differentiation.3 Notably, the review also offers a novel perspective on this topic by exploring how cell division plays a role in regulating epigenetic events and the steps required for gene expression. Dr Josefowicz and colleagues discuss a wide range of mechanisms","journal":"Immunological Reviews","year":2021,"id":210185,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9453,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":549869,"name":"Amy S. Weinmann","orcid":"0000-0001-5262-0023","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":15,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:08.869117Z","pmid":"33638253","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}