Temporally and spatially dynamic germ cell niches in Botryllus schlosseri revealed by expression of a TGF-beta family ligand and vasa

摘要

BackgroundGerm cells are specified during early development and are responsible for generating gametes in the adult. After germ cells are specified, they typically migrate to a particular niche in the organism where they reside for the remainder of its lifetime. For some model organisms, the specification and migration of germ cells have been extensively studied, but how these events occur in animals that reproduce both sexually and asexually is not well understood.