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germ line

British  

noun

  1. the lineage of cells culminating in the germ cells

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Perhaps, in human culture, and especially in the transmission of ideas through language, we have already created a new germ line, one that transcends individuals and even DNA.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

Genetic drift stems from the chance occurrence that some individuals in the germ line have more offspring than others.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

If such changes are being transmitted in mice or men, that means they are being passed down in germ line.

From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2018

Says Keefe, who collaborated with Lin Liu of Nankai University in Tianjin, China: “I’ve published three papers showing I see no evidence of these germ line stem cells in monkey, human, or mouse.”

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 5, 2015

We’re supposed to do a report on germ line cell mutations in fruit flies instead.

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

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