Understanding oocyte maturation and early development in mammals is very important, especially because these cells serve as a source of materials useful in medical applications, such as ES cells. However, the limited availability of oocytes and embryos hampers the molecular dissection of the very early stage of mammalian development. Recently, the RNA interference technology has been acknowledged to be very effective and useful in diverse groups of cells, including mammalian cells. In this study, we examined whether short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are applicable to mouse oocytes and preimplantation embryos, by targeting two genes, namely, Oct-3/4 and c-mos. siRNA injections successfully extinguished the production of these target genes. Moreover, the siRNA-injected oocytes and embryos showed phenotypes very similar to those exhibited by Oct-3/4- or Mos-knockout mice in previous studies. Accordingly, we concluded that siRNA is a useful tool in molecular studies on the early development of mouse. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.