Issues

Despite recent recognition of the critical role of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr)-dependent signaling in colon tumor suppression, its role in regulating colonic crypt stemness and cell-cell communication in vivo has not been elucidated. In the study starting on page 17, Yang and colleagues generated a high-quality atlas of colonic intestinal crypts from wild-type (WT) and intestinal-specific Ahr knockout (KO) mice using single-cell transcriptomics and advanced analytical strategies. These single-cell RNA sequencing analyses provide new evidence of the molecular function of Ahr in modulating putative stem cell driver genes, cell potency lineage decisions and cell-cell communication in vivo. The cover image shows the projection of WT and Ahr KO mouse colonocytes onto a two-dimensional t-SNE space colored projection according to their ascribed cell types.