Sinposis

Scientists have long held that we have two kinds of cells_germ and soma. Make a change to germ cells_say using genome editing_and that change will appear in the cells of future generations. Somatic cells are "safe" after such tampering; modify your skin cells, and your future children's skin cells will never know. And, while germ cells can give rise to new generations (including all of the somatic cells in a body), somatic cells can never become germ cells. How did scientists discover this relationship and distinction between somatic and germ cells_the so-called Weismann Barrier_and does it actually exist? Can somatic cells become germ cells in the way germ cells become somatic cells? That is, can germ cells regenerate from somatic cells even though conventional wisdom denies this possibility?