The Immortal Germline

The Immortal Germline, Volume 135 in the Current Topics in Developmental Biology series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters on a variety of topics, including Balbiani body, germ plasm and polarity, Wolbachia and the germline, Human germ line biology, Reproduction/immunity and sperm success, Mammalian spermatogenesis, Reproduction/regeneration and germ cells in planarians, Germline stem cell homeostasis, Germline soma interactions/sex determination, Reconstituting the mouse germ-cell specification pathway in vitro, Maternal Germ line inheritance of mitochondria, Transposon strategies, and more.

1. The vertebrate Balbiani body, germ plasm, and oocyte polarity Allison Jamieson-Lucy and Mary C. Mullins 2. Genetic basis for primordial germ cells specification in mouse and human: Conserved and divergent roles of PRDM and SOX transcription factors Anastasiya Sybirna, Frederick C.K. Wong and M. Azim Surani 3. Germ cell reprogramming Kazuki Kurimoto and Mitinori Saitou 4. From worm to germ: Germ cell development and regeneration in planarians Melanie Issigonis and Phillip A. Newmark 5. Heterogeneity of primordial germ cells Daniel H. Nguyen, Rebecca G. Jaszczak and Diana J. Laird 6. Germline stem cell homeostasis Jonathan O. Nelson, Cuie Chen and Yukiko Yamashita 7. Heterogeneous, dynamic, and stochastic nature of mammalian spermatogenic stem cells Shosei Yoshida 8. Sperm success and immunity Stuart Wigby, Susan S. Suarez, Brian P. Lazzaro, Tomaso Pizzari and Mariana F. Wolfner 9. A symbiont’s guide to the germline Shelbi L Russell, Laura Chappell and William Sullivan