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The lipotype hypothesis

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Multicellular organisms consist of different cell types that emerge in response to instructive signals. New evidence suggests that lipid composition modulates cell response to signalling cues. Here we propose that cell variability in lipid composition assists the divergence of differentiation trajectories, leading to the establishment of several cell identities.

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Fig. 1: The lipotype hypothesis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Gönczy for critically reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Bioengineering (IBI) and Global Health Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Giovanni D’Angelo

  2. Brain Mind Institute (BMI), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Gioele La Manno

Authors
  1. Giovanni D’Angelo
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  2. Gioele La Manno
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Giovanni D’Angelo or Gioele La Manno.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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D’Angelo, G., La Manno, G. The lipotype hypothesis. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 24, 1–2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-022-00556-w

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