Strome Lab Article in Current Biology
April 11, 2014
A critical decision that all cells face is whether to develop as a "germ" cell (a reproductive cell that can generate eggs and sperm) or a "somatic" cell (a non-reproductive cell, such as nerve, muscle, and skin). The Strome lab in MCD Biology discovered that removal of unique organelles called germ granules from germ cells causes those cells to switch from germ cells to somatic cells, specifically nerve and muscle cells. Their findings, which will appear in the Apr 10 issue of Current Biology, show that germ granules protect germline fate by repressing somatic fate.