Scientists at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research of the University of Cologne have discovered that body cells which are in direct contact with the germ cells in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans are responsible for controlling the stability of the genome in primordial germ cells (PGCs). All germ cells, including sperm and eggs, originate from primordial germ cells that form during early embryo development. Professor Dr. Björn Schumacher and his team at the UoC’s Institute for Genome Stability in Aging and at CECAD discovered that somatic niche cells that surround the PGCs control their response to DNA damage. The study “Somatic niche cells regulate the CEP-1/p53-mediated DNA damage response in primordial germ cells,” has now been published in Developmental Cell.
Click here for original story, Genome research shows that the body controls the integrity of heritable genomes
Source: Phys.org