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Stem cells, and the microenvironment or 'niche' that influences them, must often reside in a particular location within a tissue to perform their function. Integrin-mediated adhesion is now shown to regulate the location of the stem-cell niche in the Drosophila testis.
Collective cell invasion into the extracellular matrix (ECM) has been observed in malignant tumours and in tissue morphogenesis. To achieve this, leading cells trigger both proteolytic and structural modifications of the ECM to create channels that precede progressively widening chains of following cells.