Parental controls on embryonic development?
Friday, December 2, 2011 - 06:00
in Biology & Nature
When a sperm fertilises an egg, each contributes a set of chromosomes to the resulting embryo, which at these very early stages is called a zygote. Early on, zygotic genes are inert, so embryonic development is largely controlled by parental factors. The activation of the zygotic genome therefore represents an important transition toward a more autonomous mode of embryonic development, and has been the subject of much speculation and scrutiny. Now, a new study published by Cell Press on December 1st in the journal Developmental Cell suggests that the reach of parental control in the embryo may be longer than we thought...