Role of IL-15Rα⁺ DCs in a viral immune response. The kinetics of an antiviral CD8 T-cell response was compared among different groups of mice by measuring the percent of VSV-specific CD8 T cells present in the peripheral blood as determined by N-tetramer staining: (A) CD11c-IL-15Rα Tg-1, (B) CD11c-IL-15Rα Tg-2. (C,D) Dot plots show the percent of N-tetramer⁺ cells versus CD44 expression after gating on CD8⁺ cells present in SP, LN, and LG 25 weeks after infection in Tg-1 (C) and Tg-2 (D). (E) Graphs show total numbers of N-tetramer⁺ cells recovered from the various tissues in Wt, Tg-1, and IL-15Rα^−/− mice. Error bars represent SD, n = 2. Numbers above the bars represent percent of Wt mice. (F) KLRG-1 and CD27 expression on N-tetramer⁺ CD8 T cells in peripheral blood at indicated times after infection. (G) Histograms show CD62L expression by N-tetramer⁺ CD8 T cells in various tissues 25 weeks after infection.