Long Term Plans

While many cells in a new embryo follow a body plan to carefully flesh out limbs and tissues, a special group of cells is stowed for a journey much longer than nine months. Nurtured at all costs, primordial germ cells hold the potential to become the embryo’s future sperm or eggs. Investigating this fragile process is challenging, but here researchers make a discovery after growing an artificial early embryo, a gastruloid, from human embryonic stem cells. They watch as specific pools of cells emerge, just as in the early developmental stage called gastrulation (highlighted here in different colours). Investigating the fingerprint-like patterns of genes in the gastruloid cells, researchers find cells behaving like primordial germ cells, opening the way for further studies into how these important messengers keep our genetic ancestry safe into adulthood.

Image created using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Jitesh Neupane and Gabriele Lubatti, and colleagues
• Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Munich, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Science Advances, March 2025