Selected Grantee Publications

Increased Collective Migration Correlates With Germline Stem Cell Competition in a Basal Chordate

Fentress and De Tomaso et al., PLOS One. 2023.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37903140/

Cell competition is a process that compares the relative fitness of progenitor cells and results in healthier cells, contributing a higher proportion to the final tissue composition. Investigators are studying cell competition in a novel model organism, the colonial ascidian, Botryllus schlosseri. They demonstrated that winner germline stem cells show enhanced migratory ability to chemotactic cues ex vivo and that enhanced migration correlates with both expression of the Notch ligand, Jagged, and cluster size. The ability to study conserved aspects of cell migration makes Botryllus an excellent model for future studies on competition, chemotaxis, and collective cell migration. Supported by ORIP (R21OD030520) and NIGMS.