How the developing mammalian kidney assembles its thousands of nephrons: Fgfs as stemness signals

Abstract

In this issue of Developmental Cell, Barak et al. (2012) identify a critical role for Fgf9 and Fgf20 signaling in the nephron progenitors of the developing mammalian kidney. These Fgfs serve as survival and nephron-forming competence signals for purified Six2+ cells that represent the progenitors that normally go on to generate nephrons.