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Mammalian naïve CD8⁺ T cells are activated by antigen (signal 1) and CD28 costimulation (signal 2) to undergo several rounds of cell division, but programming for survival, effector function and memory requires a third signal that can be provided by IL-12 and/or type I interferons. Functional studies indicate that the route of antigen presentation and costimulation are conserved from fish to mammals. However, the potential of IL-12 and IFNαβ to act as signal-3 cytokines in infections inducing a CTL response has not been examined in fish. We report the cloning of CD8α and CD8β homologues, each present in duplicate copies and of two TCR-Cα isoforms in European common carp. The identification of (cytotoxic) T cell marker sequences and the availability of sequences coding for the signal-3 cytokines in the same fish species, allowed us to investigate by RT-qPCR their kinetics of gene expression during viral and …