This project examines gene expression of M. capitata during multiple stages of development. These include the following stages in hours post fertilization (HPF) eggs (0HPF), fertilized embryos (1HPF), cleavage (4HPF), prawn chip (9HPF), early gastrula (14 HPF), mid gastrula (22 HPF), late gastrula (36 HPF, 1.5 days),and swimming larvae (216 HPF, 9 days). Further, we sampled at 5 timepoints (fertilized embryos, cleavage, prawn chip, early gastrula, swimming larvae) under three ocean acidification pH treatments: Ambient treatment pH 7.85, low treatment pH 7.61, and extreme-low treatment pH 7.32. This aimed to identify the maternal mRNA provisioning, the maternal to zygotic transition (MZT) and the potential impact of ocean acidification treatments on the gene expression of these sensitive life stages.