Baroux C, Autran D, Gillmor C S, Grimanelli D, Grossniklaus U
Institute of Plant Biology & Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center, University of Zürich, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2008;73:89-100. doi: 10.1101/sqb.2008.73.053. Epub 2009 Feb 9.
In the animal kingdom, maternal control of early development is a common feature. The onset of zygotic control over early development, defined as the maternal to zygotic transition (MZT), follows fertilization with a delay of a variable number of cell divisions, depending on the species. The MZT has been well defined in animals, but investigations remain in their infancy in plants. Recent evidence suggests, however, that in plants as in animals, the MZT also occurs several division cycles after fertilization. The likely convergent evolution of the MZT in the animal and plant kingdoms is fascinating and raises major questions regarding its biological significance, particularly with regard to its importance in genome reprogramming and the acquisition of totipotency by the embryo.
在动物王国中，母体对早期发育的控制是一个普遍特征。合子对早期发育的控制开始，即母体到合子的转变（MZT），在受精后会延迟不同数量的细胞分裂，这取决于物种。MZT在动物中已经得到了很好的定义，但在植物中的研究仍处于起步阶段。然而，最近的证据表明，与动物一样，植物中的MZT也发生在受精后的几个分裂周期之后。动物和植物王国中MZT可能的趋同进化很有趣，并引发了关于其生物学意义的重大问题，特别是关于其在基因组重编程和胚胎全能性获得中的重要性。
