Male and female gametes from diverse species develop as members of intimately associated cell groups interconnected by distinctive intercellular bridges (Figure 1). Typically, cleavage furrows arrest prematurely during several consecutive premeiotic cell cycles, joining cysts of 2” gonial cells via cylindrical 0.5-l mm gaps in their plasma membranes. Whether these cell-cell junctions perform a conserved developmental function has remained a matter for speculation. In the testis, intercellular bridges that persist throughout nearly the entire course of spermatogenesis are thought to synchronize sperm development within each cyst (Fawcett et al., 1959) and may equalize access to gene products among sperm bearing different haploid genomes. In the embryonic mammalian ovary, oogonial cells interconnected within individual cysts synchronously enter meiosis and may share nutrients. These bridges are subsequently lost during a period of extensive oogonial degeneration prior to follicle formation (Zamboni and Gondos, 1966).