Vertebrate maternal-effect genes: Insights into fertilization, early cleavage divisions, and germ cell determinant localization from studies in the zebrafish.

In the earliest stages of animal development prior to the commencement of zygotic transcription, all critical cellular processes are carried out by maternally-provided molecular products accumulated in the egg during oogenesis. Disruption of these maternal products can lead to defective embryogenesis. In this review, we focus on maternal genes with roles in the fundamental processes of fertilization, cell division, centrosome regulation, and germ cell development with emphasis on findings from the zebrafish, as this is a unique and valuable model system for vertebrate reproduction. Copyright 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.