Defining cross presentation for a wider audience

Cross presentation is the process of production of peptide-MHC Class I complexes by cells in which the antigen that is the source of peptide is not translated. The majority of recent studies have described many facets of the classical TAP dependent cross presentation pathway, but numerous pathways for transfer of antigenic material from a donor to a recipient cell followed by subsequent MHC-I-restricted presentation have been established, including transfer of protein antigen, peptide, RNA, DNA or even peptide-MHC-I complexes. The extent to which each of these pathways generates overlapping or unique peptide repertoires is unknown, as is the contribution of each of these pathways to generation of protective CD8+ T cells during infection or antitumor immune responses.