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Nature Genetics 40, 934–935 (1 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/ng0808-934

One PRDM is not enough for germ cell development

Elizabeth K Bikoff & Elizabeth J Robertson

In mammals, the germ cell lineage is induced in the early post-implantation embryo by dose-dependent Bmp signals from the extra-embryonic tissues. The primordial germ cells (PGCs), readily visualized as a small cluster of cells at the base of the allantois, characteristically express very high levels of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase (encoded by Alpl) and the zinc finger transcriptional repressor Prdm1, an essential epigenetic regulator of pluripotency.