We used microarray analyses to examine the gene expression profile of Dclk1<sup>+</sup> cells in both mouse normal intestinal epithelium and Apc<sup>Min/+</sup> mouse intestinal tumors.
Recently, DCLK1 has been reported to act as an intestinal tumor stem cell marker and has been shown to be expressed in cancer cells and in the stroma of breast, colon, pancreatic, and prostate cancers.
Here, we show that Elp3, the catalytic subunit of the Elongator complex, is required for Wnt-driven intestinal tumor initiation and radiation-induced regeneration by maintaining a subpool of Lgr5(+)/Dclk1(+)/Sox9(+) cells.