Answer to Question #213371 in Biology for SpecBioDude

Question

Females are born with all the eggs they will ever carry (i.e. no more eggs are produced). I know sperm is continuously produced, but are they produced from a fixed supply?

My real question is that sperm is produced from spermatogonia (steps skipped), which are produced from primordial germ cells. Do you produce any more primordial germ cells after birth?

Answer 1

Primordial germ cells are highly specialised cells that are precursors of gametes, which, following meiosis, develop as haploid sperm and eggs that generate a new organism upon fertilisation. They transmit genetic and epigenetic information between generations and ensure the survival of a species.

Primordial germ cells originate near the allantois of the embryonic yolk sac endoderm and become evident by the fourth week of gestation. By the fifth week, these cells migrate through the mesentery to the gonadal ridge and eventually become the gonads.