Upon fertilization, maternal factors direct development and trigger zygotic genome activation at the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). However, the factors that activate the zygotic program in vertebrates are not well defined. Here, we found that protein palmitoylation played an important role in acquiring transcriptional competency and orchestrating the clearance of the maternal program in zebrafish. After inhibition of protein palmitoylation, zebrafish embryos developed normally before the Mid-Blastula Transition (MBT); however, they did not initiate epiboly. Moreover, our results showed that protein palmitoylation is required to initiate the zygotic developmental program and induce clearance of the maternal program by activating miR-430 expression. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.