Genovul-Ssc_atresie_060510

In mammals, ovarian folliculogenesis leading to the ovulation of completely mature oocytes is a long and complex process that is regulated at different levels. The mechanisms that underlie the selection of one or several dominant follicles as well as the regulation of the number of ovulating follicles are largely unknown. Atresia is a phenomenon which affects the majority of developing follicles. In this project, we proposed to study the gene regulation of small antral follicles that are either healthy or undergoing atresia in pigs). Towards this purpose, we made a comparative transcriptomics study on granulosa cells, using a 9K nylon pig microarray (GPL3729) on granulosa cells from either small healthy antral follicles (SHF) or small antretic follicles (SAF). The images were quantified using AGscan software and the data were managed with BASE software. Statistical analysis was performed using R software. Transcriptomic analysis evidenced 1682 (912) differentially expressed genes with a 5% (1%) FDR between the two follicle classes. This research project which implicated three laboratories from INRA: "Laboratoire de Genetique Cellulaire" (UMR444-LGC), "Station d'Amelioration Genetique des Animaux" (UR 631-SAGA) and "Physiologie des Comportements et de la reproduction" (UMR 85-PRC) benefited from both European funding through SABRE project and French ANR funding through GenOvul project. Keywords: transcriptome analysis, pig, cattle, ovary, folliculogenesis, gene expression, cDNA microarray The data were obtained from 13 RNA samples: 6 small healthy follicles samples and 7 small atretic follicles. They were hybridized on a 9K pig nylon microarray (GPL3729).