New research is underway to decipher a fascinating biological puzzle—how some animals can naturally discard more than half of their genetic information during embryonic development. This radical ...

Oocyte maturation encompasses the progression from a transcriptionally arrested germinal vesicle stage through meiosis I and II, culminating in a fertilisation-competent egg. During this interval, ...

Mechanotransduction—the process by which cells convert mechanical forces into biochemical signals—is now recognised as a fundamental regulator of embryonic morphogenesis. During early development, ...

Studying the early development of human embryos is challenging due to ethical constraints and technical difficulties. Therefore, animal models are often used to understand the biological processes ...

A cell of the ichthyosporean C. perkinsii showing distinct signs of polarity, with clear cortical localization of the nucleus before the first cleavage. Microtubules are shown in magenta, DNA in blue, ...

The annual killifish lives in regions with extreme drought. A research group now reports that the early embryogenesis of killifish diverges from that of other species. Unlike other fish, their body ...

Using CRISPR-based engineering methods to prompt stem cells to organize into embryo-like structures, scientists were able to create 'programmable' cellular models of embryos without ever experimenting ...

In the earliest hours after fertilization, an embryo takes its first steps toward becoming a living organism by shedding maternal control and activating its own genetic program. This critical process, ...

At least 8% of the human genome is genetic material from viruses. It was considered ‘junk DNA’ until recently, but its role in human development is now known to be essential Researchers at the Spanish ...