Abstract
During development, transcriptional properties of progenitor cells are stably propagated across multiple cellular divisions. Yet, at each division, chromatin faces structural constraints imposed by the important nuclear reorganization operating during mitosis. It is now clear that not all transcriptional regulators are ejected during mitosis, but rather that a subset of transcription factors, chromatin regulators and epigenetic his-tone marks are able to 'bookmark' specific loci, thereby providing a mitotic memory. Here we review mechanisms of mitotic bookmarking and discuss their impact on transcriptional dynamics in the context of multicellular developing embryos. We document recent discoveries and technological advances, and present current mathematical models of short-term tran-scriptional memory.