How eggs keep their messenger RNAs quiet

Human eggs can remain dormant within ovaries for decades. However, they store all the necessary machinery to launch embryonic development, including messenger RNA (mRNA), the templates required for the production of proteins. In a study now published in EMBO Reports, Laura Lorenzo-Orts, postdoc in the lab of Andrea Pauli at the IMP, characterizes a protein that helps keep mRNAs inactive and protects them from degradation.