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Nature Cell Biology 9, 1000–1004 (1 September 2007) | doi:10.1038/ncb434

Differentiation plasticity regulated by TGF-|[beta]| family proteins in development and disease

Rik Derynck & Rosemary J. Akhurst

Embryonic development is marked by successive well-orchestrated differentiation events, whereby cells make decisions to differentiate along defined lineages during the formation of specific tissues or to remain uncommitted or partly differentiated, thus permitting the maintenance of stem cell and progenitor cell populations within that tissue. These cell fate decisions are driven by combinations of cell-extrinsic growth and differentiation factors that regulate stem cell pluripotency, selection of the differentiation lineage and progression of differentiation.