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In the adult, the insulin gene is expressed exclusively in the β cells of the islets of Langerhans. In order to understand the mechanisms involved in this cell-specific gene expression better, it is necessary to look at the molecular events controlling islet cell ontogeny. Although the timing of expression of each hormone during embryogenesis has been well documented, the exact cell lineage relationship among different islet cell types is not known in detail. In the developing mouse pancreas, glucagon immunoreactivity appears at day 12 (E12), insulin at E14·5 and somatostatin at E17, while pancreatic polypeptide immunoreactivity appears after birth (Teitelman & Lee, 1987). In transgenic mice, hybrid insulin genes are initially expressed in all cells of the embryonic endocrine pancreas (Alpert et al. 1988), suggesting a common pluripotent progenitor stem cell. This conclusion is supported by the observation that cell lines derived from islet cell tumours express multiple pancreatic hormones