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Cell proliferation

Tracing your roots

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 5, page 420 (2004)Cite this article

The authors designed a genetic-lineage-tracing method that allowed them to trace the roots of postnatal pancreatic β-cells — more specifically, to distinguish between stem-cell-derived β-cells and β-cells that are the progeny of pre-existing β-cells. This method involved generating a transgenic mouse strain, in which adult β-cells were labelled in a heritable way.

The transgenic mice contained a gene that was under the control of the insulin promoter, which ensured that it was only expressed in β-cells. This gene encoded a recombinase that was inactive in the absence of the synthetic hormone tamoxifen. However, after tamoxifen injection, the transiently activated recombinase could remove a transcriptional stop signal from a reporter gene, such that this reporter gene is then expressed in a constitutive and heritable way.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Dor, Y. et al. Adult pancreatic β-cells are formed by self-duplication rather than by stem-cell differentiation. Nature 429, 41–46 (2004)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Zaret, K. Self-help for insulin cells. Nature 429, 30–31 (2004)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Rachel Smallridge
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Smallridge, R. Tracing your roots. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 5, 420 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1417

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