Special Issue

Ovarian Development and Differentiation

Submission Deadline: December 31, 2018 (Closed)

Guest Editor

Sergei G. Tevosian, PhD

Department of Physiological Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32612, USA

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Research Interests: reproductive genetics; developmental genetics; adrenal development; developmental biology

About This Topic

The beginning of this century saw an unprecedented leap in our understanding of the mechanisms guiding mammalian female sexual determination as well as development, differentiation and function of the mammalian ovary. When an amazing flurry of research papers during that time were reviewed just six years ago, it appeared that a progress in this field would be worth revisiting on a yearly basis. Unfortunately, these predictions were based merely on the extraordinary advancement of research and the scientific merit of the discoveries. Fundamental science requires substantial financial support that notably decreased during the present decade, at least in the United States. However, despite these difficult times, even at a slower pace, many important developments enhanced our knowledge of ovarian differentiation and provided new important concepts and insight that, we feel, is now worth revisiting and appraising.

This issue of OBM Genetics attempts to integrate the recent work on the differentiation of the mammalian ovary. The major function of the ovary is the organization and coordination of the female germ cell differentiation. During fetal development, female germ cells switch from proliferation to meiosis before forming follicles. In the adult, the ovary stores and releases mature oocytes into the oviduct. We intend to cover a wide variety of topics including granulosa cell proliferation and survival, meiotic progression, follicle formation, assembly and growth, ovarian vascularization, steroid hormone production, and corpora luteal function. We will also review recent progress in understanding the contribution of epigenetic mechanisms to ovarian cell differentiation. Epigenetic mechanisms are important since gametes and developing embryos are sensitive to environmental factors during the critical period of gamete reprogramming. Adverse epigenetic modifications could have harmful impact on pregnancy outcomes and health of the offspring, and can be inherited over several generations. Genetic and epigenetic disorders in the somatic or germ cell development can result in abnormal folliculogenesis, reduced fertility and primary ovarian insufficiency.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted through the LIDSEN Submission System. Detailed information on manuscript preparation and submission is available in the Instructions for Authors. All submitted articles will be thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process and will be processed following the Editorial Process and Quality Control policy. Upon acceptance, the article will be immediately published in a regular issue of the journal and will be listed together on the special issue website, with a label that the article belongs to the Special Issue. LIDSEN distributes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License in an open-access model. The authors own the copyright to the article, and the article can be free to access, distribute, and reuse provided that the original work is correctly cited.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). Research articles and review articles are highly invited. Authors are encouraged to send the tentative title and abstract of the planned paper to the Editorial Office (genetics@lidsen.com) for record. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office.

Welcome your submission!

Publication

Open Access Review Disturbed Ovarian Differentiation in XX;SRY-Negative Dogs by Rita Payan-Carreira Received: 30 December 2018;  Published: 29 April 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1902074 Abstract In a mammal, at the beginning of its development, the gonad is bipotential. The shift into a male or female pathway is coordinated by the sex chromosomal complement, which triggers a series of genetic pathways signaling the developmental pattern of the gonadal anlage. Being mutually exclusive, the differentiated gonad should be either a testis [...]