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A multicellular organism begins with a single cell, the fertilized egg, and undergoes differentiation, morphogenesis and pattern formation to become an embryo. All cellular functions and patterning decisions that occur prior to the activation of the zygotic genome depend on maternal factors deposited in the egg during oogenesis, which become active after fertilization. At present, however, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying oogenesis and early developmental processes.

We successfully isolated the maternal insertional mutation using a transposon system in zebrafish and identified the gene responsible for the mutant phenotype. Our aim is to find novel molecular mechanisms of gametogenesis and early developmental processes by isolating and analyzing such mutations.