※ Nuage introduction

    In recent years, molecular identification of the components of these germ cell substances has revealed that the molecular components overlap somewhat and thus germ plasm/granule and nuage have at times been treated as largely equivalent (1). In primary oocytes of some animals, maternal germ plasm first assembles within an ancient perinuclear oocyte structure known as the Balbiani body and later is found at the oocyte cortex, the posterior pole in some insects or the vegetal pole of some vertebrates. Nuage is the perinuclear granulo-fibrillar electron-dense material that has been identified through histological and ultrastructural examination of oocytes from invertebrates through vertebrates and that is present in various conformations in cells of the male and female gametes (1).

Reference
1. Marlow, F. (2015) Primordial Germ Cell Specification and Migration. F1000Res, 16;4. PMID: 26918157