Stemness in flux: Dissecting intestinal crypt organization with multimodal approaches.

In this issue of Developmental Cell, Banjac et al. integrate lineage tracing, single-cell RNA sequencing, and mathematical modeling to reveal that stem cells at the crypt base drive the decision between secretory and absorptive lineage commitment. Their findings highlight the central role of crypt-bottom Lgr5⁺ cells in maintaining intestinal epithelium homeostasis.