These investigators suggest a reason their mutants and their morphants show different phenotypes. The mutant embryos have had time enough to compensate for the knockdowns, hiding aspects of the loss-of-funciton phenotype, while the acute knockdown of the Morpholino shows a phenotype during time insufficient for compensation.
Yang C-R, Rajkovic G, Daldello EM, Luong XG, Chen J, Conti M. The RNA binding protein DAZL functions as repressor and activator of maternal mRNA translation during oocyte maturation. bioRxiv. 2019;[preprint] doi:10.1101/598805
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/598805v1.full
"Another possible explanation of the divergent observations is that the oocyte does not tolerate acute depletion of DAZL, while it has time to adjust to loss of DAZL during the follicle growth phase that starts in the neonate ovary. Genetic compensation has been shown to be at the basis of differences in phenotypes produced by mutations but not knockdowns. Since we have shown that DAZL functions in partnership with CPEB19, it is possible that this latter RBP would compensate for the loss of DAZL. In this respect, it would be important to determine whether CPEB expression is affected in the DAZL KO and how the translational program is executed in the absence of DAZL in the fully grown oocyte."
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