Abstract
We investigated how innate sensing by the mannose receptor (MR) influences the development of antifungal immunity. We demonstrate that MR senses mannan on the surface of attenuated Blastomyces dermatitidis vaccine yeast and that MR(-/-) mice demonstrate impaired vaccine immunity against lethal experimental blastomycosis, compared with wild-type control mice. Using naive Blastomyces-specific transgenic CD4(+) T cells, we found that MR regulates differentiation of naive T cells into T-helper type 17 (Th17) effector cells, which are essential in vaccine immunity against systemic dimorphic fungi. Thus, MR regulates differentiation of Th17 cells and is required to induce vaccine immunity against lethal pulmonary blastomycosis.