Derivation of embryonic germ cells and male gametes from embryonic stem cells

Niels Geijsen, Melissa Horoschak, Kitai Kim, Joost Gribnau, Kevin Eggan and George Q. Daley ()
Additional contact information
Niels Geijsen: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Melissa Horoschak: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Kitai Kim: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Joost Gribnau: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Kevin Eggan: Harvard University
George Q. Daley: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Nature, 2004, vol. 427, issue 6970, 148-154

Abstract: Abstract Egg and sperm cells (gametes) of the mouse are derived from a founder population of primordial germ cells that are set aside early in embryogenesis. Primordial germ cells arise from the proximal epiblast, a region of the early mouse embryo that also contributes to the first blood lineages of the embryonic yolk sac1. Embryonic stem cells differentiate in vitro into cystic structures called embryoid bodies consisting of tissue lineages typical of the early mouse embryo2,3. Because embryoid bodies sustain blood development, we reasoned that they might also support primordial germ cell formation. Here we isolate primordial germ cells from embryoid bodies, and derive continuously growing lines of embryonic germ cells. Embryonic germ cells show erasure of the methylation markers (imprints) of the Igf2r and H19 genes, a property characteristic of the germ lineage. We show that embryoid bodies support maturation of the primordial germ cells into haploid male gametes, which when injected into oocytes restore the somatic diploid chromosome complement and develop into blastocysts. Our ability to derive germ cells from embryonic stem cells provides an accessible in vitro model system for studies of germline epigenetic modification and mammalian gametogenesis.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02247 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:427:y:2004:i:6970:d:10.1038_nature02247

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02247

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().