Eggs laid by KCNQ^53B homozygous mothers fail to hatch into larvae. This embryonic lethality is only associated with homozygous KCNQ^53B mothers. Homozygous KCNQ^53B males have normal fertility, as they produce adult progeny when mated to wild-type females. Heterozygous embryos from homozygous KCNQ^53B females and wild-type males still fail to hatch, even with a copy of the wild-type gene from the male. The lack of paternal rescue indicates that the time window when KCNQ is critical lies before the zygotic expression of the gene.

The nuclei of 1-2 hour old KCNQ^53B mutant embryos are disorganised in comparison to wild-type. Some nuclei appear to be broken down into smaller fragments, whereas others have clustered abnormally, indicating that development of the mutant embryo is arrested before the cellularisation stage.