Cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein (cIAP) is a convergent hub that couples BCR-CD40 signal dynamics to B cell fate

Abstract

BCR and CD40 signals are integrated to shape B cell transcriptional output, but how the two pathways are coordinated at the level of individual signaling nodes is incompletely understood. Using primary mouse B cells stimulated with anti-IgM, anti-CD40, or both (Both), we defined six DEG classes reflecting costimulation-dependence and cross-pathway antagonism. We also connected a CD40-driven, BCR-suppressed B-cell-identity module (Pax5, Aicda, Bcl6, Cd79a/b, Cd19) to an increase in Blimp1 protein at 24 h. Building on our previous work, which showed that cIAP prolongs IKK/ERK activity after single-pathway stimulation (Shinohara et al., 2016), we added an IAP inhibitor 10 min after Both stimulation and generated transcriptomic data. This profiling showed that cIAP is required not only for late canonical NF-{kappa}B-driven genes, as predicted, but also, unexpectedly, for the entire BCR-dominant, CD40-independent negative-feedback module (Cd5, Il10, Nfkbid, Spry1/2) identified in the first dataset. A separate module was instead amplified by IAP inhibition, with kinetics compatible with non-canonical NF-{kappa}B de-repression, directly addressing a question we left open in that study regarding the BCR-side partners of cIAP. Together, these correlative findings converge on a single model: cIAP is not a CD40-restricted adaptor but a hub shared by BCR and CD40, whose feedback simultaneously sustains canonical, fate-instructive signaling and restrains the non-canonical pathway, thereby coupling receptor-proximal signal dynamics to the B cell's downstream transcriptional and fate decisions.