Transitioning from human primordial germ cells to embryonic germ cells

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) can give rise to pluripotent embryonic germ cells (EGCs) in rodents. Leitch and colleagues in this issue successfully derived human EGC-like cells from PGC-like cells and applied comprehensive multi-omic profiling to resolve their pluripotent and epigenetic dynamics, providing new insights into potential mechanisms underlying human germ cell tumorigenesis.