Delta1 expression, cell cycle exit, and commitment to a specific secretory fate coincide within a few hours in the mouse intestinal stem cell system.

The stem cells of the small intestine are multipotent: they give rise, via transit-amplifying cell divisions, to large numbers of columnar absorptive cells mixed with much smaller numbers of three different classes of secretory cells--mucus-secreting goblet cells, hormone-secreting enteroendocrine cells, and bactericide-secreting Paneth cells. Notch signaling is known to control commitment to a secretory fate, but why are the secretory cells such a small fraction of the population, and how does the diversity of secretory cell types arise? Using the mouse as our model organism, we find that secretory cells, and only secretory cells, pass through a phase of strong expression of the Notch ligand Delta1 (Dll1). Onset of this Dll1 expression coincides with a block to further cell division and is followed in much less than a cell cycle time by expression of Neurog3--a marker of enteroendocrine fate--or Gfi1--a marker of goblet or Paneth cell fate.