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Adult pancreatic beta-cells are formed by self-duplication rather than stem-cell differentiation.

How tissues generate and maintain the correct number of cells is a fundamental problem in biology. In principle, tissue turnover can occur by the differentiation of stem cells, as is well documented for blood, skin and intestine, or by the duplication of existing differentiated cells. Recent work on adult stem cells has highlighted their potential contribution to organ maintenance and repair. However, the extent to which stem cells actually participate in these processes in vivo is not clear. Here we introduce a method for genetic lineage tracing to determine the contribution of stem cells to a tissue of interest. We focus on pancreatic beta-cells, whose postnatal origins remain controversial. Our analysis shows that pre-existing beta-cells, rather than pluripotent stem cells, are the major source of new beta-cells during adult life and after pancreatectomy in mice. These results suggest that terminally differentiated beta-cells retain a significant proliferative capacity in vivo and cast doubt on the idea that adult stem cells have a significant role in beta-cell replenishment.

Aging↗

The retinal fate of Xenopus cleavage stage progenitors is dependent upon blastomere position and competence: studies of normal and regulated clones.

The clonal origin of the stage 43-44 Xenopus retina from cleavage stage precursors was quantitatively assessed with lineage tracing techniques. The retina descends from a specific subset of those blastomeres that form forebrain. The most animal dorsal midline cell (D1.1.1) produced about half of the retina, the three other dorsal ipsilateral blastomeres each produce about an eighth of the retina, and the four contralateral dorsal blastomeres and an ipsilateral ventral-animal cell together produce the remaining eighth of the retina. There was no significant spatial segregation of the clones derived from different progenitors in either the anterior-posterior or dorsal-ventral axes of the retina and no boundaries between clones were observed. Instead, the clones intermixed to form multiple radial subclones that were equivalent to those demonstrated by marking optic vesicle progenitor cells (Holt et al., 1988; Wetts and Fraser, 1988). This mosaic pattern was initiated by the beginning of gastrulation, advanced in the neural plate, and virtually complete in the optic vesicle. At optic vesicle stages cell movement within subclones was restricted, resulting in the formation of lineally related columns of cells in the mature retina. To determine if the blastomere progenitors are determined to produce these retinal lineage patterns, the major retinal progenitor (D1.1.1) was deleted bilaterally. About 60% of the tadpoles developed normal-appearing eyes; of these the retinas in two-thirds were normal in size and the rest were smaller. The blastomeres surrounding the deleted D1.1.1 progenitors changed their contributions to retina in different ways to effect a complete or partial restoration. Ventral blastomeres, which normally contribute mainly to the tail, produced substantial amounts of the retina while dorsal blastomeres, which normally contribute mainly to the head, decreased their contribution to the retina. To determine whether these changes in retinal lineage were due to changes in blastomere position after the surgery, various other blastomeres were deleted prior to lineage mapping. Dorsal-animal blastomeres took over the retinal fate of their dorsal-vegetal neighbors after those neighbors were deleted, but did not change fate after the deletion of their ventral-animal neighbors. This result suggests that dorsal-animal blastomeres change positional values in only one direction (dorsal to vegetal) after neighbor cell deletion, and that retinal fate is dictated by blastomere position. To test this hypothesis directly, different ventral and vegetal blastomeres, which normally do not produce retina, were transplanted to the position of D1.1.1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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Generation of insulin-secreting cells from pancreatic acinar cells of animal models of type 1 diabetes.

We recently found that pancreatic acinar cells isolated from normal adult mouse can transdifferentiate into insulin-secreting cells in vitro. Using two different animal models of type 1 diabetes, we show here that insulin-secreting cells can also be generated from pancreatic acinar cells of rodents in the diabetic state with absolute insulin deficiency. When pancreatic acinar cells of streptozotocin-treated mice were cultured in suspension in the presence of epidermal growth factor and nicotinamide under low-serum condition, expressions of insulin genes gradually increased. In addition, expressions of other pancreatic hormones, including glucagon, somatostatin, and pancreatic polypeptide, were also induced. Analysis by the Cre/loxP-based direct cell lineage tracing system revealed that these newly made cells originated from amylase-expressing pancreatic acinar cells. Insulin secretion from the newly made cells was significantly stimulated by high glucose and other secretagogues. In addition, insulin-secreting cells were generated from pancreatic acinar cells of Komeda diabetes-prone rats, another animal model of type 1 diabetes. The present study demonstrates that insulin-secreting cells can be generated by transdifferentiation from pancreatic acinar cells of rodents in the diabetic state and further suggests that pancreatic acinar cells represent a potential source of autologous transplantable insulin-secreting cells for treatment of type 1 diabetes.

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A latent activated olfactory stem cell state revealed by single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling.

The olfactory epithelium is one of the few regions of the nervous system that sustains neurogenesis throughout life. Its experimental accessibility makes it especially tractable for studying molecular mechanisms that drive neural regeneration in response to injury. In this study, we used single-cell sequencing to identify transcriptional and epigenetic processes involved in determining olfactory epithelial stem cell fate during injury-induced regeneration. By combining gene expression and accessible chromatin profiles of individual lineage-traced olfactory stem cells, we identified transcriptional heterogeneity among activated stem cells at a stage when cell fates are being specified. We further identified a subset of resting cells that appears poised for activation, characterized by accessible chromatin around silent genes prior to their expression in response to injury. These results provide evidence for a latent activated stem cell state in which a subset of quiescent olfactory epithelial stem cells are epigenetically primed to support injury-induced regeneration.

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Pancreatic epithelial plasticity mediated by acinar cell transdifferentiation and generation of nestin-positive intermediates.

Epithelial metaplasia occurs when one predominant cell type in a tissue is replaced by another, and is frequently associated with an increased risk of subsequent neoplasia. In both mouse and human pancreas, acinar-to-ductal metaplasia has been implicated in the generation of cancer precursors. We show that pancreatic epithelial explants undergo spontaneous acinar-to-ductal metaplasia in response to EGFR signaling, and that this change in epithelial character is associated with the appearance of nestin-positive transitional cells. Lineage tracing involving Cre/lox-mediated genetic cell labeling reveals that acinar-to-ductal metaplasia represents a true transdifferentiation event, mediated by initial dedifferentiation of mature exocrine cells to generate a population of nestin-positive precursors, similar to those observed during early pancreatic development. These results demonstrate that a latent precursor potential resides within mature exocrine cells, and that this potential is regulated by EGF receptor signaling. In addition, these observations provide a novel example of rigorously documented transdifferentiation within mature mammalian epithelium, and suggest that plasticity of mature cell types may play a role in the generation of neoplastic precursors.

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Contribution of human bone marrow stem cells to individual skeletal myotubes followed by myogenic gene activation.

Much attention is focused on characterizing the contribution of bone marrow (BM)-derived cells to regenerating skeletal muscle, fuelled by hopes for stem cell-mediated therapy of muscle degenerative diseases. Though physical integration of BM stem cells has been well documented, little evidence of functional commitment to myotube phenotype has been reported. This is due to the innate difficulty in distinguishing gene products derived from donor versus host nuclei. Here, we demonstrate that BM-derived stem cells contribute via gene expression following incorporation to skeletal myotubes. By co-culturing human BM-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) with mouse skeletal myoblasts, physical incorporation was observed by genetic lineage tracing and species-specific immunofluorescence. We used a human-specific antibody against the intermediate filament protein nestin, a marker of regenerating skeletal muscle, to identify functional contribution of MSC to myotube formation. Although nestin expression was never detected in MSC, human-specific expression was detected in myotubes that also contained MSC-derived nuclei. This induction of gene expression following myotube integration suggests that bone marrow-derived stem cells can reprogram and functionally contribute to the muscle cell phenotype. We propose that this model of myogenic commitment may provide the means to further characterize functional reprogramming of MSC to skeletal muscle.

Adipocytes↗

Direct evidence that ventral forebrain cells migrate to the cortex and contribute to the generation of cortical myelinating oligodendrocytes.

Cortical neuroepithelial cells generate neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes (OLs) in vitro. However, whether cortical OLs are derived from the cortical neuroepithelium or migrate from the ventral forebrain is under severe debate yet. This is due to the fact that OL progenitor cells (OPCs), as marked by the expression of PDGFRalpha or NG2, are generated at around embryonic day (E) 11 or 12 in the mouse ganglionic eminences, but the myelinating OLs appear during the second week postnatally in the cortex. There has been no labeling method for long-term glial cell-lineage tracing. Thus, we developed a new strategy: plasmid DNA encoding Cre recombinase was introduced into the Cre/loxP reporter forebrain in ventral- or dorsal-specific manner by in utero DNA electroporation. The reporter gfp gene is expressed permanently owing to the chromosomal DNA recombination. The GFP-labeled myelinating OLs were detected in the adult cortex when electroporation was targeted to the ventral neuroepithelium, demonstrating at least some of the myelinating OLs are derived from the ventral forebrain. However, when electroporation was targeted to the dorsal, we could not find GFP-labeled myelinating OLs. This suggests that the progenitors of cortical OPCs are absent or located at restricted regions in the dorsal forebrain (cortex) at E12.

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Specific modulation of ectodermal cell fates in Xenopus embryos by glycogen synthase kinase.

Shaggy is a downstream component of the wingless and Notch signaling pathways which operate during Drosophila development. To address the role of glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3 beta), a mammalian homologue of Shaggy, in vertebrate embryogenesis, it was overexpressed in Xenopus embryos. Microinjection of rat GSK3 beta mRNA into animal ventral blastomeres of 8-cell-stage embryos triggered development of ectopic cement glands with an adjacent anterior neural tissue as evidenced by in situ hybridization with Xotx2, a fore/midbrain marker, and NCAM, a pan-neural marker. In contrast, animal dorsal injection of the same dose of GSK3 beta mRNA caused eye deficiencies, whereas vegetal injections had no pronounced effects on normal development. Using several mutated forms of rat GSK3 beta, we demonstrate that the observed phenotypes are dose-dependent and tightly correlate with GSK3 beta enzymatic activity. Lineage tracing experiments showed that the effects of GSK3 beta are cell autonomous and that ectopic cement glands and eye deficiencies arose directly from cells containing GSK3 beta mRNA. Molecular marker analysis of ectodermal explants overexpressing GSK3 beta has revealed activation of Xotx2 and of cement gland marker XAG-1, but expression of NCAM and XIF-3 was not detected. Phenotypic effects of mRNA encoding a Xenopus homologue of GSK3 beta were identical to those of rat GSK3 beta mRNA. We hypothesize that GSK3 beta mediates the initial steps of neural tissue specification and modulates anteroposterior ectodermal patterning via activation of Otx2 transcription. Our observations implicate GSK3 beta in signaling pathways operating during neural tissue development and during specification of anterior ectodermal cell fates.

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The origin of the Mullerian duct in chick and mouse.

In vertebrates the female reproductive tracts derive from a pair of tubular structures called Mullerian ducts, which are composed of three elements: a canalised epithelial tube, mesenchymal cells surrounding the tube and, most externally, coelomic epithelial cells. Since the first description by Johannes Peter Muller in 1830, the origin of the cells making up the Mullerian duct has remained controversial. We report the results from lineage-tracing experiments in chicken and mouse embryos aimed to provide information of the dynamics of Mullerian duct formation. We show that all Mullerian duct components derive from the coelomic epithelium in both species. Our data support a model of a Mullerian epithelial tube derived from an epithelial anlage at the mesonephros anterior end, which then segregates from the epithelium and extends caudal of its own accord, via a process involving rapid cell proliferation. This tube is surrounded by mesenchymal cells derived from local delamination of coelomic epithelium. We exclude any significant influx of cells from the Wolffian duct and also the view of a tube forming by coelomic epithelium invagination along the mesonephros. Our data provide clues of the underlying mechanism of tubulogenesis relevant to both normal and abnormal development of the female reproductive tract.

Animals↗

Caudalization of neural fate by tissue recombination and bFGF.

In order to study anteroposterior neural patterning in Xenopus embryos, we have developed a novel assay using explants and tissue recombinants of early neural plate. We show, by using region-specific neural markers and lineage tracing, that posterior axial tissue induces midbrain and hindbrain fates from prospective forebrain. The growth factor bFGF mimics the effect of the posterior dorsal explant in that it (i) induces forebrain to express hindbrain markers, (ii) induces prospective hindbrain explants to make spinal cord, but not forebrain and midbrain, and (iii) induces posterior neural fate in ectodermal explants neuralized by the dominant negative activin receptor and follistatin without mesoderm induction. The competence of forebrain explants to respond to both posterior axial explants and bFGF is lost by neural groove stages. These findings demonstrate that posterior neural fate can be derived from anterior neural tissue, and identify a novel activity for the growth factor bFGF in neural patterning. Our observations suggest that full anteroposterior neural patterning may be achieved by caudalization of prospective anterior neural fate in the vertebrate embryo.

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Mesoderm formation in Eleutherodactylus coqui: body patterning in a frog with a large egg.

The direct developing frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, develops from a large egg (diameter 3.5 mm). To investigate the effect of egg size on germ-layer formation, we studied mesoderm formation in E. coqui and compared it to that of Xenopus laevis (diameter 1.3 mm). First, we identified the position of prospective mesoderm in the 16-cell E. coqui embryo by cell-lineage tracing. Although the animal blastomeres are small, they form most of the blastocoel roof and make extensive contributions to some mesodermal tissues. Second, we performed recombinant analysis with X. laevis animal caps to define the distribution of mesoderm-inducing activity. Mesoderm-inducing activity in E. coqui was restricted around the marginal zone with strong activity in the superficial cells. Neither the vegetal pole nor the blastocoel floor had activity, although these same regions from X. laevis induced mesoderm. Third, we cloned Ecbra, a homologue of Xbra, an early mesoderm marker in X. laevis. Ecbra was expressed in the marginal ring close to the surface, similar to X. laevis, but E. coqui had weaker expression on the dorsal side. Our results suggest that mesoderm formation is shifted more animally and superficially in E. coqui compared to X. laevis.

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Energy homeostasis and gastrointestinal endocrine differentiation do not require the anorectic hormone peptide YY.

The gastrointestinal hormone peptide YY is a potent inhibitor of food intake and is expressed early during differentiation of intestinal and pancreatic endocrine cells. In order to better understand the role of peptide YY in energy homeostasis and development, we created mice with a targeted deletion of the peptide YY gene. All intestinal and pancreatic endocrine cells developed normally in the absence of peptide YY with the exception of pancreatic polypeptide (PP) cells, indicating that peptide YY expression was not required for terminal differentiation. We used recombination-based cell lineage trace to determine if peptide YY cells were progenitors for gastrointestinal endocrine cells. Peptide YY(+) cells gave rise to all L-type enteroendocrine cells and to islet partial differential and PP cells. In the pancreas, approximately 40% of pancreatic alpha and rare beta cells arose from peptide YY(+) cells, suggesting that most beta cells and surprisingly the majority of alpha cells are not descendants of peptide YY(+)/glucagon-positive/insulin-positive cells that appear during early pancreagenesis. Despite the anorectic effects of exogenous peptide YY(3-36) following intraperitoneal administration, mice lacking peptide YY showed normal growth, food intake, energy expenditure, and responsiveness to peptide YY(3-36). These observations suggest that targeted disruption of the peptide YY gene does not perturb terminal endocrine cell differentiation or the control of food intake and energy homeostasis.

Animals↗

Regional cell movement and tissue patterning in the zebrafish embryo revealed by fate mapping with caged fluorescein.

Determination of fate maps and cell lineage tracing have previously been carried out in the zebrafish embryo by following the progeny of individual cells injected with fluorescent dyes. We review the information obtained from these experiments and then present an approach to fate mapping and cell movement tracing, utilizing the activation of caged fluorescein-dextran. This method has several advantages over single-cell injections in that it is rapid, allows cells at all depths in the embryo to be marked, can be used to follow cells starting at any time during development, and allows an appreciation of the movements of cells located in a coherent group at the time of uncaging. We demonstrate that the approach is effective in providing additional and complementary information on prospective mesoderm and brain tissues studied previously. We also present, for the first time, a fate map of placodal tissues including the otic vesicle, lateral line, cranial ganglia, lens, and olfactory epithelium. The prospective placodal cells are oriented at the 50% epiboly stage on the ventral side of the embryo with anterior structures close to the animal pole, and posterior structures nearer to the germ ring.

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The role of the transcriptional regulator Ptf1a in converting intestinal to pancreatic progenitors.

Pancreas development begins with the formation of buds at specific sites in the embryonic foregut endoderm. We used recombination-based lineage tracing in vivo to show that Ptf1a (also known as PTF1-p48) is expressed at these early stages in the progenitors of pancreatic ducts, exocrine and endocrine cells, rather than being an exocrine-specific gene as previously described. Moreover, inactivation of Ptf1a switches the character of pancreatic progenitors such that their progeny proliferate in and adopt the normal fates of duodenal epithelium, including its stem-cell compartment. Consistent with the proposal that Ptf1a supports the specification of precursors of all three pancreatic cell types, transgene-based expression of Pdx1, a gene essential to pancreas formation, from Ptf1a cis-regulatory sequences restores pancreas tissue to Pdx1-null mice that otherwise lack mature exocrine and endocrine cells because of an early arrest in organogenesis. These experiments provide evidence that Ptf1a expression is specifically connected to the acquisition of pancreatic fate by undifferentiated foregut endoderm.

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His-Purkinje lineages and development.

The heartbeat is initiated and coordinated by a multi-component set of specialized muscle tissues collectively referred to as the pacemaking and conduction system. Over the last few years, impetus has gathered into unravelling the cellular and molecular processes that regulate differentiation and integration of this essential cardiac network. One focus of our collective work has been the developmental history of cells comprising His-Purkinje tissues of the conduction system. This interest in part arose from studies of the expression of connexins in periarterial Purkinje fibres of the chick heart. Using lineage-tracing strategies, including those based on replication-defective retroviruses and adenoviruses, it has been shown that conduction cells are derived from multipotent, cardiomyogenic progenitors in the tubular heart. Moreover, heterogeneity within myocardial clones has indicated that the elaboration of the conduction system in the chick embryo occurs by progressive, localized recruitment from within this pool of cardiomyogenic cells. Cell birth dating has revealed that inductive conscription of cells to central elements of the conduction system (e.g. the His bundle) precedes recruitment to the peripheral components of the network (i.e. subendocardial and periarterial Purkinje fibres). Birth dating studies in rodents suggest an analogous recruitment process is occurring in this species. In addition to summarizing earlier work, this chapter provides information on ongoing studies of cell-cell signalling and transcriptional mechanisms that may regulate the development of His-Purkinje tissues.

Animals↗

Retroviral lineage analysis of fibroblast growth factor receptor signaling in FGF2 inhibition of oligodendrocyte progenitor differentiation.

Fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) inhibits oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) differentiation during development and limits remyelination following chronic demyelination. The current study examines the mechanism underlying this effect of FGF2 expression on OPC differentiation. Retroviral lineage tracing demonstrates a direct in vivo effect of FGF receptor (FGFR) signaling on OPC differentiation. Retrovirus expressing a dominant negative FGFR construct (FGFRdn) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) was injected into the dorsal columns of postnatal day 7 (P7) mice followed by perfusion at P28. Among the GFP-labeled cells, FGFRdn retrovirus generated a higher proportion of oligodendrocytes than did control infections. This result from FGFRdn expression in OPCs was similar to the result obtained in our previous study using control retrovirus in FGF2 null mice. Further, in vitro retroviral siRNA expression distinguishes the function of specific FGFR isoforms in OPC responses to FGF2. FGF2 inhibition of OPC differentiation was effectively blocked by siRNA targeted to FGFR1, but not FGFR2 or FGFR3. We propose a model of direct FGF2 activation of FGFR1 leading to inhibition of OPC differentiation. This signaling pathway may be an important regulator of oligodendrocyte generation during myelination in development and may perturb OPC generation of remyelinating oligodendrocytes in demyelinating disease.

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Signalling between the hindbrain and paraxial tissues dictates neural crest migration pathways.

Cranial neural crest cells are a pluripotent population of cells derived from the neural tube that migrate into the branchial arches to generate the distinctive bone, connective tissue and peripheral nervous system components characteristic of the vertebrate head. The highly conserved segmental organisation of the vertebrate hindbrain plays an important role in patterning the pathways of neural crest cell migration and in generating the distinct or separate streams of crest cells that form unique structures in each arch. We have used focal injections of DiI into the developing mouse hindbrain in combination with in vitro whole embryo culture to map the patterns of cranial neural crest cell migration into the developing branchial arches. Our results show that mouse hindbrain-derived neural crest cells migrate in three segregated streams adjacent to the even-numbered rhombomeres into the branchial arches, and each stream contains contributions of cells from three rhombomeres in a pattern very similar to that observed in the chick embryo. There are clear neural crest-free zones adjacent to r3 and r5. Furthermore, using grafting and lineage-tracing techniques in cultured mouse embryos to investigate the differential ability of odd and even-numbered segments to generate neural crest cells, we find that odd and even segments have an intrinsic ability to produce equivalent numbers of neural crest cells. This implies that inter-rhombomeric signalling is less important than combinatorial interactions between the hindbrain and the adjacent arch environment in specific regions, in the process of restricting the generation and migration of neural crest cells. This creates crest-free territories and suggests that tissue interactions established during development and patterning of the branchial arches may set up signals that the neural plate is primed to interpret during the progressive events leading to the delamination and migration of neural crest cells. Using interspecies grafting experiments between mouse and chick embryos, we have shown that this process forms part of a conserved mechanism for generating neural crest-free zones and contributing to the separation of migrating crest populations with distinct Hox expression during vertebrate head development.

Animals↗

Involvement of BMP-4/msx-1 and FGF pathways in neural induction in the Xenopus embryo.

The msx homeodomain protein is a downstream transcription factor of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-4 signal and a key regulator for neural tissue differentiation. Xmsx-1 antagonizes the dorsal expression of noggin and cerberus, as revealed by in situ hybridization and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays. In animal cap explants, Xmsx-1 and BMP-4 inhibit the neural tissue differentiation induced by noggin or cerberus. A loss-of-function study using the Xmsx-1/VP-16 fusion construct indicated that neural tissue formation was directly induced by the injection of fusion ribonucleic acid, although the expression of neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) in the cap was less than that in the cap injected with tBR or noggin. In contrast to the single cap assay, unexpectedly, both BMP-4 and Xmsx-1 failed to inhibit neurulation in the ectodermal explants to which the organizer mesoderm was attached. The results of cell-lineage tracing experiments indicated that the neural cells were differentiated from the animal pole tissue where the excess RNA of either BMP-4 or Xmsx-1 was injected, whereas notochord was differentiated from the organizer mesoderm. Neural tissue differentiated from BMP-4-injected ectodermal cells strongly expressed posterior neural markers, such as hoxB9 and krox20, suggesting that the posterior neural cells differentiated regardless of the existence of the BMP signal. The introduction of a dominant-negative form of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor (XFD) into the ectodermal cells drastically reduced the expression of pan and posterior neural markers (N-CAM and hoxB-9) if co-injected with BMP-4 RNA, although XFD alone at the same dose did not shut down the expression of N-CAM in the combination explants. Therefore, it is proposed that an FGF-related molecule was involved in the direct induction of posterior neural tissue in the inducing signals from the organizer mesoderm in vivo.

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