title: Specifying and protecting germ cell fate.
abstract: Germ cells are the special cells in the body that undergo meiosis to generate gametes and subsequently entire new organisms after fertilization, a process that continues generation after generation. Recent studies have expanded our understanding of the factors and mechanisms that specify germ cell fate, including the partitioning of maternally supplied 'germ plasm', inheritance of epigenetic memory and expression of transcription factors crucial for primordial germ cell (PGC) development. Even after PGCs are specified, germline fate is labile and thus requires protective mechanisms, such as global transcriptional repression, chromatin state alteration and translation of only germline-appropriate transcripts. Findings from diverse species continue to provide insights into the shared and divergent needs of these special reproductive cells.
authors.affiliation: Molecular, Cell &Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Strome
authors.affiliation: Kathryn W. Davis Center for Regenerative Biology &Medicine, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine 04672, USA.
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Updike
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003594:Cytoplasmic Granules; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000166:cytology; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*