iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Then, we switched gears to investigate the genes activated at ZGA. For a fair comparison across species, we defined a "ZGA score" to select the top 500 genes in terms of zygotic activation in each species. We also compared them to highly maternally-deposited (MAT) genes. 9/15

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Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

First, we uncovered a set of shared genomic features of genes activated at ZGA. Across species, these genes tend to be shorter, contain fewer exons, display distinct regulatory architectures, and show strong codon usage bias compared to MAT genes. 10/15

ZGA genes share a common set of genomic features across animals

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Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Second, ZGA genes shared functional enrichments across species, particularly on gene expression and RNA processing. In fact, studying also the genes activated 1 or 2 stages after ZGA, we found conserved functional switches that reflect the temporal needs of early development. 11/15

Functional enrichments of MAT, ZGA and subsequently activated genes reflect the dynamics and needs of early development

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