Dynamic changes in gene expression of growing nonhuman primate antral follicles

Ovaries from adult female rhesus monkeys were obtained on a serendipitous basis from animals going to necropsy for various reasons, none of which would be expected to impact ovarian function. The follicle size categories to be collected were determined based on the fact that in rhesus monkeys, follicles that produce mature oocytes are generally larger than 1mm and in each pair of naturally cycling ovaries there were generally fewer than five follicles in this category. Three size categories of follicles were established: less than 0.5, 0.5 to 1.0 and greater than 1.0. All samples from each size category were pooled for each animal, resulting in three pools of granulosa, three of cumulus and three of oocytes for each animal. Samples were processed for RNA extraction followed by RNAseq on the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. RNA-sequencing of rhesus monkey cumulus, granulosa, and oocytes from three antral follicle sizes.