title: Prepatterning embryonic development: tabula scripta?
abstract: Recent work has raised the possibility that chromatin modifications pre-set embryonic patterns of gene expression. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Lindeman et al. (2011) support this observation and describe how the pattern of several chromatin marks evolves over the transition from maternal to zygotic control of development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Shelby A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Blythe
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Klein