中文摘要：

生殖细胞是多细胞生物体遗传物质传递的载体,在发育生物学、临床医学及畜牧业生产等领域中具有广阔的应用前景。原始生殖细胞作为胚胎体内最早出现的生殖细胞,在发育过程中受多种信号因子的诱导,发生特化、迁移、分化及减数分裂,最终形成单倍体的配子,此过程在遗传学和表观遗传学方面受到严格的调控。另外,多能性干细胞向生殖细胞的分化以及生殖细胞的体外培养方面在最近均取得了较大的进展。该文将主要围绕原始生殖细胞,综述最近几年来关于生殖细胞形成中的转录调控及体外培养体系的进展。

英文摘要：

Germ cell lineages ensure genetic information through generations,and have great implications in developmental biology,clinical therapy and agriculture.Primordial germ cells（PGCs） are the first germ cell population that is segregated from somatic cells during early embryonic development,and are thus the founder cells for all progeny gametes.The specification,migration and differentiation of PGCs is induced by various signaling and strictly controlled through transcriptional regulations and epigenetic modulations.The in vitro culture of germ cell had been established,and recent studies demonstrated the improved differentiation of germ cell lineages from pluripotent stem cells.In this review,we will summarize reports regarding transcriptional regulation and epigenetic modulation of PGC specification as well as in vitro system to derive and to culture germ cells.