Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are precursors of both male and female gametes as fundamental materials for organism development. The transcriptome, methylome, and chromatin accessibility profiles of PGCs in both mice and humans have been recently reported. However, little is known about the characteristics of PGCs at the protein levels, which directly exert cellular functions. Here, we construct landscapes of both proteome and 3D spatial distribution of mouse PGCs at E11.5, E13.5 and E16.5 days, the three critical developmental windows for PGCs' sex differentiation, female meiosis initiation and male mitotic arrest. In each developmental stage of PGCs, nearly 2,000-3,000 proteins are identified, among which specific functional pathways such as oxidative phosphorylation, DNA damage repair, and meiotic cell cycle are involved for different events during PGCs development. Interestingly, by 3D modeling we find that PGCs spatially cluster into around 1,300 nests in genital ridge at E11.5 and the nest number is not increased by the exponential proliferation of PGCs. Comparative analysis of our proteomic data with published transcriptomic data does not show a close correlation, meaning that the practically executive factors are beyond the transcriptome. Thus, our work offers a valuable resource for the systematic investigations of PGC development at protein level and spatial map.
Keywords: PGCs; meiosis; proteome; sex differentiation; spatial map.