[摘要]：Here we report that splice blocking morpholinos (Sb MO) against zebrafish sox31 elicit developmental arrest, likely through creating a series of dominant negative splicing variants. Embryos injected with the Sb MO develop normally before the Mid-Blastula Transition (MBT); however, they do not initiate epiboly. Microarray analysis of mRNAs collected at the dome stage revealed that the Sb MO impairs activation of a large set of zygotic genes and reduces degradation of maternal mRNA during MBT. Furthermore, an apoptotic response occurs in Sb morphants at about 6 hpf. SoxB1 family genes including sox31 thus play an essential role for early embryos traversing the transitional stage. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies.
