Figure 8.

Stochasticity promotes tissue reproducibility in mouse ear epidermis. In the mouse interfollicular epidermis, regular columns of keratinocytes in the stratum corneum differentiate from cells in an underlying basal layer. A new model suggests that the daughters of mitotically dividing basal cells within the basal layer adopt three potential fates in a stochastic but probabilistic manner: (1) two mitotically dividing basal cells, (2) two post-mitotic differentiating basal cells, or (3) one mitotically dividing basal cell and one post-mitotic differentiating basal cell. Post-mitotic cells differentiate into flattened hexagonal keratinocytes and the mechanical properties of the cell shape ensure the regularity of the stratum corneum. Reprinted with permission from MacMillan Publishers Ltd: Solanas and Benitah (2013).