Competition for Food Drives Stem Cell Fate in Facultative Niches.

Mechanisms regulating maintenance of the stem cell pool in facultative niches of the mammalian testis are poorly understood. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Kitadate et al. (2019) propose a minimal model in which stem cells compete for limited resources of fibroblast growth factors, which predicts their density during homeostasis and regenerative conditions.