7/
Bottom line:
* mRNA clearance is tempo-tuned to species and env. conditions
* 3′UTR motifs and poly(A) tails govern scalable mRNA decay
* QUANTA provides a quantitative framework to study mRNA turnover (and not just in embryos)
#mRNAdecay #zebrafish #mzt #compbio #devbio

6/
To test this, we slowed and accelerated zebrafish development by changing the temperature.
Result: unstable mRNAs failed to adapt - they degraded too fast.
But by stabilizing them -- via longer poly(A) tails or modifying 3′UTRs -- timing improved.

5/
But not all transcripts follow the rule.
Some degrade faster or slower than expected, hinting at species-specific tuning.
What's behind this?

4/
Using QUANTA, we analyzed time-series data from 4 species: Zebrafish, Frog, Mouse and Human,
and revealed a conserved logic despite different tempos:
mRNA clearance onset and rate globally scale with species’ developmental speed.

3/
We built QUANTA, a tool to analyze time-series RNA-seq data, and quantify mRNA turnover dynamics and related regulatory motifs.

2/
Embryos begin life loaded with maternal mRNAs.
As development progresses, these must be cleared to let the embryo’s own (zygotic) genes take over.
But how is this clearance timed across species with wildly different developmental speeds?