THERE have been many claims for the segregation of Anuran primordial germcells at an early embryonic stage. Most authors agree that these cells may be distinguished with ease in the most dorsal region of the larval endoderm and, somewhat later in development, at the base of the dorsal mesentery and in the undifferentiated gonad (see review by Johnston, 1951). Bounoure (1934) and Blackler (1958)...

Follicular development and differentiation are sequential events which are tightly regulated by endocrine hormones, intraovarian regulators and cell-cell interactions. Balanced cell proliferation and apoptosis play an important role in the selection of dominant follicle. The formation of primordial follicle is initiated after a migratory primordial germ cell establishes a transitory close conta...

Partitioning-defective proteins (PAR) are detected to express mainly in the cytoplast, and play an important role in cell polarity. However, we showed here that PAR6, one kind of PAR protein, was localized in the nuclei of mouse oocytes that formed primordial follicles during the perinatal period, suggesting a new role of PAR protein. It is the first time we found that, in mouse fetal ovaries, ...

The pluripotent epiblast cells in the early embryo are destined to form both the somatic cells and primordial germ cells. In the few cells that undergo specification to establish the germ cell lineage, there is repression of the somatic programme. Recent evidence shows that, Blimp1, a known transcriptional repressor with a SET/PR domain, is crucial for the specification of primordial germ cells...

Segregation of the germ line from the soma is an essential event for transmission of genetic information across generations in all sexually reproducing animals. Although some well-studied systems such as Drosophila and Xenopus usematernally inherited germ determinants to specify germ cells, most animals, including mice, appear to utilize zygotic inductive cell signals to specify germ cells duri...

In Drosophila melanogaster, primordial germ cells are specified at the posterior pole of the very early embryo. This process is regulated by the posterior localized germ plasm that contains a large number of RNAs of maternal origin. Transcription in the primordial germ cells is actively down-regulated until germ cell fate is established. Bulk expression of the zygotic genes commences concomitan...

Objective Genetic and morphologic similarities between mouse embryonic stem cell (ESCs) and Primordial Germ Cell (PGCs) make it difficult to distinguish the two cell types in in vitro differentiation. Using the expression of specific markers of germ cells that are not expressed or expressed at low levels in ESCs, can help recognizing in vitro differentiated cells MaterialsAndMethods In this stu...

Segregation of the germ line from the soma is an essential event for transmission of genetic information across generations in all sexually reproducing animals. Although some well-studied systems such as Drosophila and Xenopus use maternally inherited germ determinants to specify germ cells, most animals, including mice, appear to utilize zygotic inductive cell signals to specify germ cells dur...