How to Use germ cell in a Sentence

germ cell

noun
  • But that July, tragedy struck when he was diagnosed with a germ cell tumor.
    — Greg Hanlon, PEOPLE.com, 2 Feb. 2022
  • More specifically, Miller had a germ cell tumor of her ovary.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • In nature, they're formed from primordial germ cells and can be seen as precursors to egg cells.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 21 Sep. 2018
  • No, germ cells here refer to the reproductive cells within your ovaries.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • This, in turn, decreases the number of Sertoli and germ cells that rely on testosterone for growth.
    — Matthew Wosnitzer, Verywell Health, 5 Jan. 2025
  • But flowers, which contain both kinds of germ cells—pollen and ova—form from active somatic tissue at the tips of growing stems.
    — Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Infections, toxins or just old age can affect germ cells and produce offspring that are less healthy in various ways.
    — Quanta Magazine, 11 May 2017
  • These germ cells then divide to form stem cells that can produce more of themselves, and more of the cells that, through a series of divisions, make sperm.
    — Rachel Becker, The Verge, 26 Apr. 2018
  • If the embryo is male, each primordial germ cell divides to produce two cells called spermatogonia.
    — K. N. Smith, Discover Magazine, 25 Feb. 2016
  • These include Sertoli cells and germ cells that produce sperm and Leydig cells that produce testosterone.
    — Matthew Wosnitzer, Verywell Health, 5 Jan. 2025
  • Any mutations occurring in the dividing cells of a stem will be locked into the germ cells and can pass on to the next generation.
    — Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, 29 Aug. 2019
  • These germ cells are specialized cells that produce an animal's reproductive cells.
    — Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 13 Jan. 2025
  • The dissertation examined how germ cells behaved in one animal.
    — Quanta Magazine, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Dolly was the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell, which is any type of bodily cell that is not a reproductive germ cell.
    — Bill Frist, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2022
  • Sometimes an entire chromosome is misdirected during the formation of a germ cell.
    — Mark Cohen, Discover Magazine, 28 Aug. 2014
  • And germ cell growths are usually benign tumors called mature teratomas, the ACS explains.
    — Korin Miller, SELF, 1 Nov. 2018
  • Moreover, the findings suggest that cryopreserved germ cells can stay fertile for at least six months, a key finding for future long-duration space missions.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Colossal scientists will extract primordial germ cells—or cells that develop into egg and sperm—from a tinamou or emu embryo and rewrite their genome to match key features of the moa.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 8 July 2025
  • Transgenerational inheritance is even easier in small organisms that do not go through a germ cell stage, such as bacteria.
    — Quanta Magazine, 2 June 2017
  • Evolution in animals is largely driven by mutations in the DNA of germ cells – the sperm and egg that fuse to form an embryo.
    — Monika Joshi, The Conversation, 1 May 2023
  • The increase was found in certain types of cancer including leukemias, lymphomas, brain tumors, hepatic tumors, and gonadal germ cell tumors, according to the study.
    — Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 5 Mar. 2025
  • In the labs, visitors are shown how scientists take red blood cells from a developing egg embryo – within the blood will be the primordial germ cells, which develop into egg and sperm in adult birds.
    — Mike Snider, USA Today, 17 Feb. 2026
  • At the same time, Colossal is using a similar culture to grow the primordial germ cells of the Nicobar pigeon, which is more closely related to the dodo.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 17 Sep. 2025
  • Almost every major successful multicellular life form reproduces with germ cells.
    — Quanta Magazine, 21 Feb. 2024
  • This happens under conditions in which both genes have an equal chance (50 percent) of going into the germ cells, as is true for the vast majority of genes — this is like the twins’ both getting half of the cake.
    — Quanta Magazine, 9 Nov. 2017
  • From there, the team converted the XX cells into primordial germ cells, the precursors of eggs and sperm, that were subsequently programmed with the signals to turn them into egg cells.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 24 Mar. 2023
  • In Drosophila melanogaster, the standard lab fruit fly, this problem is partly managed by the fact that Apollo shows much higher activity in the male germ cells than the female equivalents.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 23 Feb. 2018
  • The results didn’t raise as big of a concern for gene therapy because the AAV vector showed a very low probability of integrating in germ cells.
    — Megan Molteni, STAT, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Early during an embryo’s development, the germ cells — which are basically the cellular grandparents or great grandparents of sperm — travel to the nascent gonads.
    — Rachel Becker, The Verge, 26 Apr. 2018
  • But as the quality of the germ cells declines, there is no evolutionary reason to keep extending life span further; from evolution’s perspective, life exists to reproduce itself.
    — Quanta Magazine, 8 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'germ cell.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: