Cover image

Old glass floats, which were once used for fishery, are pictured as a metaphor for chromatin and incomplete erasure of histone modifications in medaka (Oryzias latipes) early embryos. Over time, many glass floats lose their ropes, much like histone modifications are eliminated from chromatin after fertilization. However, some glass floats still have the ropes attached and remain available for fishery (represented by the images of medaka within). In this issue, functional roles of retained histone modifications during early development are demonstrated. (Cover illustration by Misaki Ouchida, https://www.misakiouchida.com/. [For details, see Fukushima et al., pp. 572–586.])