Up until now the discussion has focused on how the establishment and maintenance of epigenetic marks differ for PGCs versus somatic cells and in male germ cells versus female germ cells.

In utero, the blastocyst implants and all three embryonic germ layers are formed during gastrulation. Somatic stem cells are present in many fetal and post-natal tissues. Somatic stem cells are ...

The pair had helped identify a still-unnamed disease, which they had tied to a particular gene and to a particular somatic mutation—a genetic change that had not been passed down from a parent and was ...

soma cell fate decision during embryogenesis. After a flurry of cell divisions from the starting “germ cell” (i.e. united egg and sperm), somatic cells begin to exit the cell cycle as the DREAM ...

More information: Penny A. F. Whiley et al, Testis exposure to unopposed/elevated activin A in utero affects somatic and germ ...

which are changes to DNA that a person inherits from a parent’s egg or sperm cell, is much easier than finding significant somatic mutations. A germ-line mutation looks like a red ball in a sea ...