Epithelial tissues require the removal and replacement of damaged cells to sustain a
functional barrier. Dying cells provide instructive cues that can influence surrounding cells to
proliferate, but how these signals are transmitted to their healthy neighbors to control cellular
behaviors during tissue homeostasis remains poorly understood. Here we show that dying
stem cells facilitate communication with adjacent stem cells by caspase-dependent
production of Wnt8a-containing apoptotic bodies to drive cellular turnover in living epithelia …