The Will to Bud

The separation of the somatic and germ lines in biology is a classic case of finding differences where there are none. August Weismann [1,2] can be blamed for claiming a fundamental difference between an immortal germ line and a mortal somatic line, but germ cells, like somatic cells live and die in a mortal context. The germ line is a tissue that gives rise to sex cells much like somatic lines give rise to their somatic products. Those germ cells that undergo meiosis and successful fertilization start new somatic and germ lines (i.e., the differentiation of cell lines including germ cells) and so do unfertilized eggs developing parthenogenically in plants and a variety of animals including amphibians, reptiles, and birds [3].