EpoRs role in lineage commitment is currently unclear. EpoR expression can extend as far back as the hematopoietic stem cell compartment. It is unknown whether EpoR signaling plays a permissive (i.e. induces only survival) or an instructive (i.e. upregulates erythroid markers to lock progenitors to a predetermined differentiation path) role in early, multipotent progenitors in order to produce sufficient erythroblast numbers. Current publications in the field suggest that it is primarily permissive. The generation of BFU-e and CFU-e progenitors was shown to be normal in rodent embryos knocked out for either Epo or EpoR. An argument against such lack of requirement is that in response to Epo or hypoxic stress, the number of early erythroid stages, the BFU-e and CFU-e, increases dramatically. However, it is unclear if it is an instructive signal or, again, a permissive signal. One additional point is that signaling pathways activated by the EpoR are common to many other receptors; replacing EpoR with prolactin receptor supports erythroid survival and differentiation in vitro. Together, these data suggest that commitment to erythroid lineage likely does not happen due to EpoRs as-yet-unknown instructive function, but possibly due to its role in survival at the multipotent progenitor stages.