Role of steroidogenic factor 1 in the regulation of the ovarian reserve

The ovarian reserve of follicles comprises all oocytes for lifetime fertility and once formed, it is non renewing. The orphan nuclear receptor steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1; Nr5a1) is essential for steroidogenesis, but its role in the earliest stages of follicular development is not known. We therefore developed a model of conditional depletion of SF-1 from prenatal ovaries and performed RNAsequencing to identify SF-1 regulated genes. Mice with ovarian knockout of steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) were generated using Amhr2-cre (SF-1 cKO; Nr5a1 f/f, Amhr2-cre Tg/+) and compared to littermate controls with intact SF-1 expression(Con; Nr5a1 f/f, Amhr2-cre +/+). Ovaries were collected from mice on embryonic day (ED) 17.5, Postnatal day (PND) 1, and PND4.