RNA granules in germ cells
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Updated: May 30, 2026

Ex Vivo Culture of Chick Cerebellar Slices and Spatially Targeted Electroporation of Granule Cell Precursors
Published on: December 14, 2015
Ekaterina Voronina1, Geraldine Seydoux, Paolo Sassone-Corsi
1Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Cell Dynamics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. evoronina@jhmi.edu
Abstract:
"Germ granules" are cytoplasmic, nonmembrane-bound organelles unique to germline. Germ granules share components with the P bodies and stress granules of somatic cells, but also contain proteins and RNAs uniquely required for germ cell development. In this review, we focus on recent advances in our understanding of germ granule assembly, dynamics, and function. One hypothesis is that germ granules operate as hubs for the posttranscriptional control of gene expression, a function at the core of the germ cell differentiation program.
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