Figure 1. Mammalian Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and their ligands.

TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR5 and TLR6 are located on the cell surface. Their extracellular domains (depicted as rods) bind specific microbial products that act as ligands and the intracellular domains (depicted as spheres) signal via specific cytoplasmic signalling proteins. TLRs function as homodimers or heterodimers.The ligands specific for several such dimers are listed at the top of the figure. Several other TLRs, such as TLR3, TLR7/8 and TLR9, recognize specific nucleic acids that are often produced by viruses. They span the endosomal membrane with the ligand-binding domains inside the lumen and the signalling domains in the cytoplasm. They also function as dimers and recognize double-stranded (ds) RNA, single-stranded (ss) RNA or dsDNA containing CpG sequences. GPI, glycosylphosphatidylinisotol; LPS, lipopolysaccharide.