Nakamura Akira, Seydoux Geraldine
Laboratory for Germline Development, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan.
Development. 2008 Dec;135(23):3817-27. doi: 10.1242/dev.022434.
In animals, the germline is the only lineage that transmits genetic information to the next generation. Although the founder cells of this lineage are specified differently in invertebrates and vertebrates, recent studies have shown that germline specification in C. elegans, Drosophila and mouse depends on the global inhibition of mRNA transcription. Different strategies are used in each organism, but remarkably most target the same two processes: transcriptional elongation and chromatin remodeling. This convergence suggests that a repressed genome is essential to preserve the unique developmental potential of the germline.
在动物中，生殖系是唯一能将遗传信息传递给下一代的细胞谱系。尽管该谱系的起始细胞在无脊椎动物和脊椎动物中的指定方式不同，但最近的研究表明，秀丽隐杆线虫、果蝇和小鼠中的生殖系指定依赖于mRNA转录的全局抑制。每种生物使用不同的策略，但值得注意的是，大多数都针对相同的两个过程：转录延伸和染色质重塑。这种趋同表明，一个受到抑制的基因组对于保持生殖系独特的发育潜能至关重要。
