In 1902, the vertebrate embryologist James Beard wrote these words in his monograph on germ cells in the skate Raja batis [1]. Over 110 years later, germ line specification and development are indeed major areas of investigation in the fields of developmental biology and evolution. August Weismann’s description of the germ line as containing ‘‘unalterable accessory idioplasm’’ [2] may sound sus...

testicular cancer typically spreads to the lymph nodes, but hematogenous dissemination to distant organs can also occur. bone metastasis is uncommon and is thought to be a poor prognostic indicator. jaw metastasis is exceedingly rare but is of great clinical significance, since it may be the first sign of an occult testicular cancer or the first evidence of relapse of a known tumor. herein, we ...

some cases of male infertility are due to the destructive side-effects of anticancer treatment methods such as chemo and radiotherapies on germ cell lines. the increase in the survival rate of cancer patients who undergo treatment, especially children, has drawn attention to fertility preservation. the most common and effective technique in preserving male fertility is sperm freezing and its su...

background: creation of artificial gametes may provide a universal solution for these patients of lacking gametes. stem cell technology may provide a way to obtain fully functional gametes. retinoic acid (ra) can initiate meiosis. several studies have demonstrated that ra can promote sperm cells differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells (mescs) and other cells from human embryonic stem ce...

How germ cells are specified in the embryos of animals has been a mystery for decades. Unlike most developmental processes, which are highly conserved, embryos specify germ cells in very different ways. Curiously, in mouse embryos germ cells are specified by extracellular signals; they are not autonomously specified by maternal germ cell determinants (germ plasm), as are the germ cells in most ...

Primordial germ cell (PGC) formation in holometabolous insects like Drosophila melanogaster relies on maternally synthesised germ cell determinants that are asymmetrically localised to the oocyte posterior cortex. Embryonic nuclei that inherit this "germ plasm" acquire PGC fate. In contrast, historical studies of basally branching insects (Hemimetabola) suggest that a maternal requirement for g...

BACKGROUND Phthalate exposure induces germ cell effects in the fetal rat testis. Although experimental models have shown that the human fetal testis is insensitive to the steroidogenic effects of phthalates, the effects on germ cells have been less explored. OBJECTIVES We sought to identify the effects of phthalate exposure on human fetal germ cells in a dynamic model and to establish whether...

an isolated fusarium anthophilum (a. braun) wollenweber (isolate 16c) has been considered as a candidate for microbial control of barnyard grass [echinochloa crus-galli (l.) p. beauv]. the effects of nutrition on conidiation, germination rate and germ-tube elongation of conidia of the fungus were evaluated. conidia yield, conidial germination and conidial germ-tube elongation of the fungus grow...