Impact of Global Transcriptional Silencing on Cell Cycle Regulation and Chromosome Segregation in Early Mammalian Embryos.

The onset of an early development is, in mammals, characterized by profound changes of multiple aspects of cellular morphology and behavior. These are including, but not limited to, fertilization and the merging of parental genomes with a subsequent transition from the meiotic into the mitotic cycle, followed by global changes of chromatin epigenetic modifications, a gradual decrease in cell size and the initiation of gene expression from the newly formed embryonic genome. Some of these important, and sometimes also dramatic, changes are executed within the period during which the gene transcription is globally silenced or not progressed, and the regulation of most cellular activities, including those mentioned above, relies on controlled translation.