 In biology and genetics, the germline in a multicellular organism is the population of its bodily cells that are so differentiated or segregated that in the usual processes of reproduction they may pass on their genetic material to the progeny. As a rule this passing on happens via a process of sexual reproduction. Typically it is a process that includes systematic changes to the genetic material, changes that arise during recombination, meiosis and fertilization for example. However, there are many exceptions, including processes and concepts such as various forms of epimixies, autotomy, otimixies, cloning, or parphonogenesis. The cells of the germline commonly are called germ cells. For example, gametes such as the sperm or the egg are part of the germline. So are the cells that divide to produce the gametes, called gametocytes, the cells that produce those, called gamma-tagonia, and all the way back to the zyrgot, the cell from which the individual developed. In sexually reproducing organisms, cells that are not in the germline are called somatic cells. The term refers to all of the cells of body apart from the gametes. According to this viewed mutations, recombinations and other genetic changes in the germline may be passed to offspring, but a change in the somatic cell will not be. This need not apply to somatically reproducing organisms, such as some prithera 6 and many plants. For example, many varieties of citrus, plants in the rosaceae and some in the asteraceae, such as doraxicum produced seeds epimictically when somatic deployed cells displace the ovule or early embryo. In an earlier stage of genetic thinking, the distinction between germline and somatic cell was clear cut. For example, August Weissman proposed and pointed out, the germline cell is immortal in the sense that it is part of a lineage that has reproduced indefinitely since the beginning of life and, barring accident could continue doing so indefinitely. However, it is now known in some detail that this distinction between somatic and germ cells is partly artificial and depends on particular circumstances and internal cellular mechanisms such as telomeres and controls such as the selective application of telomerase in germ cells, stem cells and the like. Not all multicellular organisms differentiate into somatic and germlines, but in the absence of specialized technical human intervention practically all but the simplest multicellular structures do so. In such organisms somatic cells tend to be practically totipotent, and for over a century sponge cells have been known to reassemble into new sponges after having been separated by forcing them through a sieve. Germline can refer to a lineage of cells spanning many generations of individuals. For example, the germline that links any living individual to the hypothetical last universal common ancestor, from which all plants and animals descend.