Next generation mothers: Maternal control of germline development in zebrafish

Abstract

In many animals, factors deposited by the mother into the egg control the earliest events in development of the zygote. These maternal RNAs and proteins play critical roles in oocyte development and the earliest steps of embryogenesis such as fertilization, cell division and embryonic patterning. Here, this article summarizes recent discoveries made on the maternal control of germline specification in zebrafish. Moreover, this review will discuss the major gaps remaining in our understanding of this process and highlight recent technical innovations in zebrafish, which allow tackling some of these questions in the near future.

• Early embryogenesis
• gamete
• genetics
• germ cell
• germ plasm
• maternal-effect
• oocyte
• oogenesis

Acknowledgements

I thank Karuna Sampath for substantial contributions to this review, Pritesh Krishnakumar and Stephan Riemer for comments on the manuscript, Sreelaja Nair and the participants of the Maternally Controlled Development workshop at the 11th International Zebrafish Conference, Madison 2014, for stimulating discussions that led to topics covered in this review.

Declaration of interest

Research in my laboratory is supported by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the University of Göttingen. The author reports no declaration of interest.