We are interested in understanding control of the earliest moments of development using both the zebrafish and the mouse as model systems. In collaboration with Drs. Barbara Knowles and Joel Graber at The Jackson Laboratory, we are using a combination of computational and experimental approaches to determine the genomic sequences responsible for reorganization and activation of the oocyte genome in the developing embryo. We are using similar computational tools to determine the signals in the 3' UTR of transcripts that control poly-adenylation and developmentally controlled activation translation of mRNAs (see Salisbury, Hutchison & Graber, 2006).