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Zygotic Genome Activation: Critical Prelude to the Most Important Time of Your Life

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Germline Development in the Zebrafish

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2218))

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Abstract

Activation of the embryonic genome during development represents a major developmental transition in all species. The history of its exploration began in the 1950s–1960s, when this idea was put forward and proven experimentally by Alexander Neyfakh. He observed the aberrant development of fish embryos upon X-ray irradiation and noted the different developmental outcomes depending on the stage when fertilized eggs were subjected to irradiation. Neyfakh also discriminated a regional difference of X-irradiation between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. By selecting the X-ray dose causing nuclear damage, he determined the beginning of zygotic transcription, which at that time became known as the morphogenetic function of nuclei. His team defined the link of zygotic transcription with the asynchronization of cell division and cell migration, the two other hallmarks, which along with the morphogenetic function (or the zygotic genome activation), are at the core of the mid-blastula transition during development. Within this framework, current studies using maternal mutants and application of modern methods of whole-embryo and single-cell transcriptomics begin to decipher the molecular mechanisms of the mid-blastula transition (or the maternal-zygotic transition).

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Acknowledgments

The author was supported by an Opus grant (2016/21/B/NZ3/00354) from the NCN, Poland.

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  1. International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Vladimir Korzh

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  1. Vladimir Korzh
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Correspondence to Vladimir Korzh .

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  1. Institute for Developmental Biochemistry, University of Göttingen Medical Center Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany

    Roland Dosch

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Korzh, V. (2021). Zygotic Genome Activation: Critical Prelude to the Most Important Time of Your Life. In: Dosch, R. (eds) Germline Development in the Zebrafish. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2218. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0970-5_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0970-5_25

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