Culty Martine
Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1A4, Canada.
Birth Defects Res C Embryo Today. 2009 Mar;87(1):1-26. doi: 10.1002/bdrc.20142.
Male germ cells, the repository cells of the genome, comprise several successive developmental stages starting in the embryo and ending up with the spermatozoon. Gonocytes represent the fetal and neonatal stages preceding the formation of spermatogonial stem cells. Recent findings shows that germline stem cells can be driven to pluripotency and used as alternative for embryonic stem cells prompted more effort in identifying the processes regulating the development of their precursors, the testicular gonocytes. Also called pre- or pro-spermatogonia, gonocytes represent not one, but several successive developmental stages between the time at which the germ cell becomes resident in the forming fetal testis to the time it migrates to the basement membrane of the seminiferous cord to adopt a spermatogonial phenotype. This review summarizes the findings regarding the genetic identity of gonocytes, providing a description of the "common" gene expression profiles of fetal and neonatal gonocytes, as well as information on the main regulatory factors of gonocyte functions. A better comprehension of gonocyte development should help in the understanding of how germline stem cells are formed, possibly providing valuable clues on the origins of germ cell tumors or infertility.
雄性生殖细胞作为基因组的储存细胞，包含从胚胎期开始直至精子形成的几个连续发育阶段。生殖母细胞代表精原干细胞形成之前的胎儿期和新生儿期阶段。最近的研究结果表明，生殖系干细胞可被诱导为多能性，并用作胚胎干细胞的替代物，这促使人们更加努力地去确定调控其前体细胞——睾丸生殖母细胞发育的过程。生殖母细胞也被称为前精原细胞或原精原细胞，它代表的不是一个，而是从生殖细胞定居于正在形成的胎儿睾丸到迁移至生精索基底膜并呈现精原细胞表型这一过程中的几个连续发育阶段。本综述总结了有关生殖母细胞基因特性的研究结果，描述了胎儿和新生儿生殖母细胞的“共同”基因表达谱，并提供了有关生殖母细胞功能主要调控因子的信息。更好地理解生殖母细胞的发育有助于了解生殖系干细胞是如何形成的，这可能为生殖细胞肿瘤或不孕症的起源提供有价值的线索。
