title: Germline stem cells.
abstract: Stem cells support tissue maintenance by balancing self-renewal and differentiation. Germline stem cells (GSCs) belong to a kind of stem cells that are crucial to development and tissue homeostasis with their ability to both differentiate into gametes and maintain an undifferentiated state by their self-renewal property. The GSCs are unique in that they transmit genetic information from parent to offspring. In this review, we concentrate on human and mammalian models including rat and mouse, which are used to study GSCs, and summarize current progress about the GSC origin, location, characteristics, regulatory mechanisms, application, and role of GSCs in gametogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory for the Genetics of Developmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders (Ministry of Education), Bio-X Institutes, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. jiwu@sjtu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Huacheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009866:Oogenesis; D013091:Spermatogenesis; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism