An intriguing association between the spatial layout of chromosomes within nuclei and the evolution of chromosome gene order was recently uncovered. Chromosome regions with conserved gene order in the Drosophila genus are larger if they interact with the inner side of the nuclear envelope in D. melanogaster somatic cells. This observation opens a new door to understand the evolution of chromoso...

The colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri continuously regenerates entire bodies in an asexual budding process. The germ line of the newly developing bodies is derived from migrating germ cell precursors, but the signals governing this homing process are unknown. Here we show that germ cell precursors can be prospectively isolated based on expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase and integrin alph...

The germ cell nuclear factor (GCNF) is a member of the nuclear receptor super family of transcription factors. GCNF expression during gastrulation and neurulation is critical for normal embryogenesis in mice. GCNF represses expression of the POU domain transcription factor Oct4 during mouse post-implantation development in vivo. Oct4 is thus down-regulated during female gonadal development, whe...

Mitochondria are accurately transmitted to the next generation through a female germ cell in most animals. Mitochondria produce most ATP, accompanied by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). A specialized mechanism should be necessary for inherited mitochondria to escape from impairments of mtDNA by ROS. Inherited mitochondria are named germ-line mitochondria, in contrast with somati...

Maternally synthesised factors contribute to the establishment of the germ cell lineage in lower vertebrates. In zebrafish, germ-soma segregation appears to be completed by the late blastula stage of development. To search for new germ cell factors in the zebrafish, we have used subtractive cDNA cloning. Here we report that linker histone H1M transcripts mark the germ line from the early gastru...

Genetic mosaics provide information about cellular lineages that is otherwise difficult to obtain, especially in humans. De novo mutations act as cell markers, allowing the tracing of developmental trajectories of all descendants of the cell in which the new mutation arises. De novo mutations may arise at any time during development but are relatively rare. They have usually been observed throu...

background: recent publications about differentiation of stem cells to germ cells have motivated researchers to make new approaches to infertility. in vitro production of germ cells improves understanding differentiation process of male and female germ cells. due to the problem of using embryonic stem cells (esc), it’s necessary the mentioned cells be replaced with some adult multi-potent stem ...

Germ cell fate decisions are poorly understood, despite their central role in reproduction. One fundamental question has been whether germ cells are regulated to enter the meiotic cell cycle (i.e., mitosis-meiosis decision) and to be sperm or oocyte (i.e., sperm-oocyte decision) through one or two cell fate choices. If a single decision is used, a male-specific or female-specific meiotic entry ...

The germ line exhibits sexual dimorphism as do the somatic tissues. Cells with the 2X;2A chromosome constitution will follow the oogenic pathway and X;2A cells will develop into sperm. In both somatic and germ-line tissues, the sexual pathway chosen by the cells depends on the gene Sex-lethal (Sxl), whose function is continuously needed for female development. In the soma, the sex of the cells ...

In wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans, the XO male germ line makes only sperm and the XX hermaphrodite germ line makes sperm and then oocytes. In contrast, the germ line of either a male or a hermaphrodite carrying a mutation of the fog-1 (feminization of the germ line) locus is sexually transformed: cells that would normally make sperm differentiate as oocytes. However, the somatic tissues of fo...