The fate of future generations depends on a high-quality germ line. For a female to
successfully produce offspring, her oocytes must be successfully specified and their contents …

Most vertebrate oocytes contain a Balbiani body, a large, non-membrane-bound
compartment packed with RNA, mitochondria, and other organelles. Little is known about …

A mechanistic dissection of early oocyte differentiation in vertebrates is key to advancing our
knowledge of germline development, reproductive biology, the regulation of meiosis, and all …

Vasa is a universal marker of the germ line in animals, yet mutations disrupting vasa cause
sexually dimorphic infertility, with impaired development of the ovary in some animals and …

The source of symmetry breaking in vertebrate oocytes is unknown. Animal—vegetal oocyte
polarity is established by the Balbiani body (Bb), a conserved structure found in all animals …

Transgenesis is an essential technique for any genetic model. Tol2-based transgenesis
paired with Gateway-compatible vector collections has transformed zebrafish transgenesis …

The most prominent developmental regulators in oocytes are RNA-binding proteins
(RNAbps) that assemble their targets into ribonucleoprotein granules where they are stored …

Intracellular Ca 2+ signaling regulates cellular activities during embryogenesis and in adult
organisms. We generated stable Tg [βactin2: GCaMP6s] stl351 and Tg [ubi: GCaMP6s] …

The proteins Oskar (Osk) in Drosophila and Bucky ball (Buc) in zebrafish act as germ plasm
organizers. Both proteins recapitulate germ plasm activities but seem to be unique to their …

In many animals, the germline is specified by maternal RNA-granules termed germ plasm.
The correct localization of germ plasm during embryogenesis is therefore crucial for the …