GI highlights from the literature

Basic scienceMaster regulator of intestinal progenitor plasticity

Tomic G, Morrissey E, Kozar S, et al. Phospho-regulation of ATOH1 is required for plasticity of Secretory Progenitors and tissue regeneration. Cell Stem Cell 2018; 23:436–443.

Intestinal progenitor cells can be thought of as reserve stem cells which step up following tissue damage. They exhibit self-renewal and give rise to multilineage clones, thereby defining the properties of a stem cell, but are committed to intestinal lineages. It is known that transcription factor ATOH1 is upregulated in progenitors giving rise to secretory lineages, and this paper looked at the role of post-translational phosphorylation of ATOH1. An Atoh1-CreERT2 mouse model allowed lineage tracing and showed that Atoh1+ cells gave rise to Paneth, goblet cells and via an intermediate precursor, enteroendocrine cells. Radiation injury required Atoh1+ cells for cell regeneration. Atoh1 undergoes phosphorylation by cyclin-dependent kinases on multiple sites. A phosphomutant Atoh1 mouse was developed...

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