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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Determining the Role of Maternally-Expressed Genes in Early Development with Maternal Crispants
Published on: December 21, 2021
Nadine Dobrovolskaïa-Zavadskaïa and the dawn of developmental genetics
1The Institute of Molecular Agrobiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore. vlad@ima.org.sg
Abstract:
In one of the first genetic screens aimed at identifying induced developmental mutants, Nadine Dobrovolskaïa-Zavadskaïa, working at the Pasteur Laboratory in the 1920s, isolated and characterized a mutation affecting Brachyury, a gene that regulates tail and axial development in the mouse. Dobrovolskaïa-Zavadskaïa's analysis of Brachyury and other mutations affecting tail development were among the earliest attempts to link gene action with a tissue-specific developmental process in a vertebrate. Her analyses of genes that interacted with Brachyury led to the discovery of the t-haplotype chromosome of mouse. After 70 years, Brachyury and the multiple genes with which it interacts continue to occupy a prominent focus in developmental biology research. A goal of this review is to identify the contributions that Dobrovolskaïa-Zavadskaïa made to our current thinking about Brachyury and how she helped to shape the dawn of the field of developmental genetics. BioEssays 23:365-371, 2001.
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