"Sweet talk": closing in on C type lectin signaling

C type lectins recognize pathogens by binding to pathogen-specific carbohydrate residues. The finding reported by Rogers et al. (2005) in this issue of Immunity, that ligand binding by the C type lectin Dectin-1 leads to recruitment of the tyrosine kinase Syk and is critical to subsequent cytokine production by the cell, will surely inspire further research on the mechanisms of carbohydrate receptor signaling.