Figure 1. Representation of early pancreatic development.

At approximately E9 in the mouse, pancreatic progenitors form dorsal and ventral buds off of the developing gut tube. Just a few days later, these multipotent progenitors give rise to a branched structure in which the tips are committed to an acinar cell fate, and the trunk contains duct-endocrine progenitors. The box lists transcription factors required for this remarkable transition.