All animal embryos pass through a stage during which developmental control is handed
from maternally provided gene products to those synthesized from the zygotic genome. This …

The transition between initiation and productive elongation during RNA Polymerase II (Pol II)
transcription is a well-appreciated point of regulation across many eukaryotes. Elongating …

The completion of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequence represents a major
milestone in a journey initiated by Sydney Brenner some 30 years ago. The goal then as …

We demonstrate the efficacy of double-stranded RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) of gene
expression in generating “knock-out” phenotypes for specific proteins in several Drosophila …

In screening for embryonic-lethal mutations in Caernorhabditis elegans, we defined an
essential gene (let-858) that encodes a nuclear protein rich in acidic and basic residues. We …

In a 4-cell stage C. elegans embryo, signaling by the P 2 blastomere induces anterior–
posterior polarity in the adjacent EMS blastomere, leading to endoderm formation. We have …

Early embryonic germ cells in C. elegans and D. melanogaster fail to express many
messenger RNAs expressed in somatic cells. In contrast, we find that ribosomal RNAs are …

Histone deacetylation plays an important role in methylated DNA silencing. Recent studies
indicated that the methyl-CpG-binding protein, MBD2, is a component of the MeCP1 histone …

Temporal profiles of transcript abundance during embryonic development were obtained by
whole-genome expression analysis from precisely staged C. elegans embryos. The result is …

An asymmetrical network of cortically localized PAR proteins forms shortly after fertilization
of the C. elegans egg. This network is required for subsequent asymmetries in the …