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Concept
Germline
Summary
In biology and genetics, the germline is the population of a multicellular organism's cells that pass on their genetic material to the progeny (offspring). In other words, they are the cells that form the egg, sperm and the fertilised egg. They are usually differentiated to perform this function and segregated in a specific place away from other bodily cells.
As a rule, this passing-on happens via a process of sexual reproduction; typically it is a process that includes systematic changes to the genetic material, changes that arise during recombination, meiosis and fertilization for example. However, there are many exceptions across multicellular organisms, including processes and concepts such as various forms of apomixis, autogamy, automixis, cloning or parthenogenesis. The cells of the germline are called germ cells. For example, gametes such as a sperm and an egg are germ cells. So are the cells that divide to produce gametes, called gametocytes, the cells that produce those, called gametogonia, and all the way back to the zygote, the cell from which an individual develops.
In sexually reproducing organisms, cells that are not in the germline are called somatic cells. According to this view, mutations, recombinations and other genetic changes in the germline may be passed to offspring, but a change in a somatic cell will not be. This need not apply to somatically reproducing organisms, such as some Porifera and many plants. For example, many varieties of citrus, plants in the Rosaceae and some in the Asteraceae, such as Taraxacum, produce seeds apomictically when somatic diploid cells displace the ovule or early embryo.
In an earlier stage of genetic thinking, there was a clear distinction between germline and somatic cells. For example, August Weismann proposed and pointed out, a germline cell is immortal in the sense that it is part of a lineage that has reproduced indefinitely since the beginning of life and, barring accident, could continue doing so indefinitely.
Official source
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