Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2010 Dec;22(6):737-43. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2010.09.004. Epub 2010 Oct 13.
Germ cells and somatic cells have the identical genome. However, unlike the mortal fate of somatic cells, germ cells have the unique ability to differentiate into gametes that retain totipotency and produce an entire organism upon fertilization. The processes by which germ cells differentiate into gametes, and those by which gametes become embryos, involve dramatic cellular differentiation accompanied by drastic changes in gene expression, which are tightly regulated by genetic circuitries as well as epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic regulation refers to heritable changes in gene expression that are not due to changes in primary DNA sequence. The past decade has witnessed an ever-increasing understanding of epigenetic regulation in many different cell types/tissues during embryonic development and adult homeostasis. In this review, we focus on recent discoveries of epigenetic regulation of germ cell differentiation in various metazoan model organisms, including worms, flies, and mammals.
生殖细胞和体细胞具有相同的基因组。然而，与体细胞的必死命运不同，生殖细胞具有独特的能力分化为配子，这些配子保持全能性，并在受精后产生整个生物体。生殖细胞分化为配子的过程，以及配子变成胚胎的过程，涉及到剧烈的细胞分化，伴随着基因表达的剧烈变化，这些变化受到遗传电路和表观遗传机制的严格调控。表观遗传调控是指基因表达的可遗传变化，而不是由于初级 DNA 序列的变化。在过去的十年中，人们对胚胎发育和成年期稳态过程中许多不同类型/组织的细胞中的表观遗传调控有了越来越深入的了解。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了在各种后生动物模式生物（包括蠕虫、苍蝇和哺乳动物）中生殖细胞分化的表观遗传调控的最新发现。
