An older term for the nucleus of a cell, or sometimes referring to a primitive cell or the formative material of cells.
From Greek 'kytos' (cell) + 'blastos' (bud, germ, sprout). Used in 19th-century cytology before the term 'nucleus' became standard.
Scientists of the 1800s literally thought the nucleus was like a 'bud' or 'sprout' of the cell—hence 'cytoblast'—but this older terminology shows how they were thinking of cells as almost plant-like with reproductive buds!
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