Papers for Journal Club

• Tumbar, T., Guasch, G., Greco, V., Blanpain, C., Lowry, W.E., Rendl, M. and Fuchs, E. Defining the epithelial stem cell niche in skin. Science. 2004. 303: 359-63. This is the original paper detailing the pulse-chase method and the identification of label-retaining cells in the hair follicle bulge.
  
  
• Blanpain, C, Lowry, WE, Geoghegan, A, Polak, L and Fuchs, E. Self-renewal, multipotency, and the existence of two cell populations within an epithelial stem cell niche. Cell. 2004. 118: 635-48. This paper shows the clonal analysis and grafting experiment demonstrating that the hair follicle bulge cells are multipotent stem cells.
  
  
• Lowry, WE, Blanpain, C, Nowak, JA, Guasch, G, Lewis, L and Fuchs E. Defining the impact of ?-catenin/Tcf transactivation on epithelial stem cells. Genes Dev. 2005. 19: 1596-611. This paper dissects the role of Wnt signaling in epithelial stem cells, using both loss and gain of function studies on ?-catenin.
  
  
• Yi, R, Poy, MN, Stoffel, M and Fuchs, E. A skin microRNA promotes differentiation by repressing ‘stemness’. Nature. 2008. 452: 225-9. Demonstrates how microRNAs can regulate the activation and subsequent differentiation of stem cells.
  
  
• Nowak, JA, Polak, L, Pasolli, HA, and Fuchs, E. Hair follicle stem cells are specified and function in early skin morphogenesis. Cell Stem Cell. 2008. 3: 33-43. Where do adult hair follicle stem cells come from? This paper reveals how they are specified early in embryonic development.
  
  
• Ezhkova, E, Pasolli, HA, Parker, JS, Stokes, N, Su, IH, Hannon, G, Tarakhovsky, A, and Fuchs, E. Ezh2 orchestrates gene expression for the stepwise differentiation of tissue-specific stem cells. Cell. 2009. 136: 1122-35. This paper demonstrates the role that epigenetic modifications – specifically histone methylation – play in regulating skin stem cell differentiation.