Tracing the cellular basis of islet specification in mouse pancreas

Abstract

The cellular basis of islet morphogenesis and fate allocation remain unclear. Here, the authors use a R26-CreER-R26R-Confetti mouse line to follow quantitatively the clonal dynamics of islet formation showing how, during the secondary transition, islet progenitors amplify through rounds of stochastic cell division before becoming restricted to α and β cell sublineages.