The discovery of maternal messenger RNA: fast-paced and transformative.

Abstract

Some major discoveries come as the culmination of a long progression of incremental findings and evolving ideas. The discovery of maternal mRNA was different, its instancy noteworthy as a matter of epistemology. But it had a second impact, one that was far greater than the fast kinetics of the discovery per se. This was because it was the moment when embryology became molecular biology. This key event then soon aligned with genetics, deployed particularly in Drosophila and C. elegans, there proving this approach to be the emperor of all disciplines for the study of development. But the 1960's discovery of maternal mRNA, in the sea urchin, was the milestone in catalyzing this later heuristic vector.