Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: For two decades, an antibody recognizing germ cell nuclear antigen (GCNA) has been widely used to identify mouse germ cells. The antigen, highly germ cell specific and expressed coincident with a key developmental transition as migrating germ cells enter the gonad, has heretofore not been identified. Here, we reveal GCNA as the founding member of a novel, ancient family of germ cell enriched proteins found across eukaryotes, including all major animal classes, pl...