A stretch of DNA in the mouse genome left by ancient viral infections is crucial for early development in the womb, new research shows. According to the study, published in December in the journal ...

How can we reliably and objectively characterize the speed and various stages of embryonic development? With the help of artificial intelligence! Researchers present an automated method. Animal ...

Conditional genetics and single-embryo RNA-seq show that SETDB1 extinguishes the transient, retroelement-driven transcriptional programs of the totipotent two-cell state to facilitate the exit from ...

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, ...

Image of mouse embryos at the 2-cell stage visualised by light microscopy. Two blastomeres (cells) can be seen inside the zona pellucida (a “shell-like” protective outer layer) of each embryo. Credit: ...

Descriptions of the embryo go back at least to the time of Aristotle, but it has only been since the late 19 th century and early 20 th century that advances in experimental approaches allowed ...