BMC Developmental Biology BioMed Central Research article Open Access Ovarian gene expression in the absence of FIGLA, an oocyte-specific transcription factor Saurabh Joshi*1, Holly Davies1, Lauren Porter Sims2, Shawn E Levy2 and Jurrien Dean1 Address: 1Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA and 2Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA Email: Saurabh Joshi* -
[email protected]; Holly Davies -
[email protected]; Lauren Porter Sims -
[email protected]; Shawn E Levy -
[email protected]; Jurrien Dean -
[email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 13 June 2007 Received: 11 December 2006 Accepted: 13 June 2007 BMC Developmental Biology 2007, 7:67 doi:10.1186/1471-213X-7-67 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-213X/7/67 © 2007 Joshi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: Ovarian folliculogenesis in mammals is a complex process involving interactions between germ and somatic cells. Carefully orchestrated expression of transcription factors, cell adhesion molecules and growth factors are required for success. We have identified a germ-cell specific, basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, FIGLA (Factor In the GermLine, Alpha) and demonstrated its involvement in two independent developmental processes: formation of the primordial follicle and coordinate expression of zona pellucida genes. Results: Taking advantage of Figla null mouse lines, we have used a combined approach of microarray and Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) to identify potential downstream target genes.