Follicles, consisting of oocytes and surrounding granulose cells, are the fundamental structural and functional units of ovaries and provide the necessary microenvironment for oocyte growth and maturation (1, 2). Folliculogenesis is a tightly regulated process with multiple stages including assembly, development and ovulation (stages of mammalian folliculogenesis see Figure below) (3) . Inappropriate coordination of these events results in ovarian pathologies such as premature ovarian failure (POF), and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) (4, 5). Although great efforts have been paid, the molecular mechanisms of folliculogenesis and ovarian disorders still remain to be dissected.
Although many proteins have been identified to be implicated in follicle assembly, development and ovulation, an integrated resource on this area still remains unavailable. In this work, we collected all proteins identified to play roles in follicle assembly, development and ovulation. From the related literature of PubMed, nearly 40,000 records were found. After manually curated, 788 records correspondent to 556 proteins has been confirmed to be implicated in follicle assembly, development or ovulation. Then an integrated and searchable database Follicle online 1.0 - follicle assembly, development and ovulation has been established. The Follicle online 1.0 database is the first integrative resource to pin point most of identified components and related scientific information of follicle assembly, development and ovulation.
Currently, the Follicle online 1.0 database has been updated on Dec 20, 2014, containing 558 unique protein entries. The online service of Follicle online 1.0 was implemented in PHP + MySQL + JavaScript. The database will be updated routinely as new Follicle online proteins are reported.
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Citation
Hua, J.#, B. Xu#, Y. Yang, R. Ban, F. Iqbal, H. J. Cooke, Y. Zhang* and Q. Shi* (2015). Follicle Online: an integrated database of follicle assembly, development and ovulation. Database (Oxford) 2015: bav036.
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