Signaling while eating: MCL is coupled with Mincle

Recently, C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) have been identified as a newly emerging family of pattern-recognition receptors for pathogen-associated molecular patterns. The ligand and function of many "individual" CLRs have been clarified in the past few years. A new report by Lobato-Pascual et al. in this issue of the European Journal of Immunology [Eur. J. Immunol. 2013. 43: 3167-3174] shows that a rat CLR, named macrophage C-type lectin (also called Clec4d), forms a heterodimer with another CLR, macrophage inducible C-type lectin (also called Clec4e). This finding sheds light on a possible synergistic regulation of different C-type lectin receptors by forming heterodimers: such heterodimers may amplify signaling, expand ligand specificity, or confer multiple functions.