{"id":14461,"date":"2018-10-16T11:18:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T09:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=14461"},"modified":"2024-07-24T17:48:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T15:48:08","slug":"deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born\/","title":{"rendered":"Deleting genes to study how germ cells are born"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>With multiple fluorescent reporters of different colours, the team around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.it\/research\/unit\/hackett\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jamie Hackett<\/a> \u2013 group leader at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EMBL Rome<\/a> \u2013 were able to track the development of pluripotent stem cells into germ cells. Germ cells are a critical cell-type since they develop into sperm or eggs, which establish each new generation. However, it is not fully understood which genes are important for germ cells to be made. The scientists used a modified CRISPR-technique \u2013 CRISPR screening \u2013 to delete in turn each of the 21,000 genes in the mouse genome and study the effect of their absence on germ cell development. They identified 23 genes that are likely important for germ cells to develop, greatly extending the number of previously known genes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study also used advanced stem cell techniques. Early germ cells exist only in small numbers in embryos, making their analysis challenging. Moreover, mapping the whole genome\u2019s role required millions of samples. The scientists therefore scaled up the number of germ cells by using embryonic stem cells and turning them into early germ cells in a dish. In combination with CRISPR screening, this technique could prove useful for future studies to understand which genes are important for other cell types such as neurons or blood cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This work was a collaboration involving scientists from EMBL and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cam.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University of Cambridge<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How embryonic stem cells develop into the germ line<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[628,41,664,629,42,714,498,514,118],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-14461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-crispr","tag-genetics","tag-genome","tag-genome-editing","tag-genomics","tag-germ-line","tag-hackett","tag-rome","tag-stem-cell"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>How embryonic stem cells develop into the germ line<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"","link_url":""},{"link_description":"","link_url":""},{"link_description":"","link_url":""},{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>Jamie A. Hackett<em> et al.<\/em>, Tracing the transitions from pluripotency to germ cell fate with CRISPR screening, <em>Nature Communications<\/em>,\u00a0published online 16 October 2018. DOI:\u00a010.1038\/s41467-018-06230-0<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-018-06230-0"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None","article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Deleting genes to study how germ cells are born | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EMBL scientists deleted genes in the mouse genome to research the development of embryonic stem cells into the germ line.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deleting genes to study how germ cells are born | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMBL scientists deleted genes in the mouse genome to research the development of embryonic stem cells into the germ line.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-16T09:18:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-24T15:48:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/EMBL_logo_colour.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1638\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"783\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Mueller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Mueller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Patrick Mueller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/20e24fdaf3fdbf34c02236ad1afe73f2\"},\"headline\":\"Deleting genes to study how germ cells are born\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-16T09:18:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-24T15:48:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/deleting-genes-to-study-how-germ-cells-are-born\/\"},\"wordCount\":225,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"crispr\",\"genetics\",\"genome\",\"genome editing\",\"genomics\",\"germ line\",\"hackett\",\"rome\",\"stem cell\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; 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