Kacy Gordon’s article, “Stem cell niche exit in C. elegans via orientation and segregation of daughter cells by a cryptic cell outside the niche,” has been featured in eLife Sciences. Congratulations, Kacy!
From the abstract, “Stem cells reside in and rely upon their niche to maintain stemness but must balance self-renewal with the production of daughters that leave the niche to differentiate. We discovered a mechanism of stem cell niche exit in the canonical C. elegans distal tip cell (DTC) germ stem cell niche mediated by previously unobserved, thin, membranous protrusions of the adjacent somatic gonad cell pair (Sh1). A disproportionate number of germ cell divisions were observed at the DTC-Sh1 interface… Because Sh1 membrane protrusions eluded detection for decades, it is possible that similar structures actively regulate niche exit in other systems.”
Read the full article here.