Molecular painting of the ovary and ovulation under new light

What is it about?

When you think about the ovary, what comes to your mind? What about ovulation – the process of the ovary releasing eggs to be fertilized by sperm? The short answer is that different from most other tissues in our body, the ovary and the process of ovulation encompasses cyclic and highly dynamic changes of a cellular, molecular, and structural landscape under the control of reproductive hormones. This dynamism makes the ovary a unique model to explore fundamental mechanisms of how tissues are constructed and reconstructed – not within a limited timespan of embryonic development, but possibly throughout the reproductive lifespan. The intricate coordination across different cell types to achieve this dynamism also means things can go awry: and when this happens, ovulation is disrupted and fertility is impaired. To understand such an intricate process, we need to apply the most sophisticated tools available in biotechnology to map out the what, when, and where in the ovary at cellular and molecular levels with high resolution. This is what we accomplished in this paper using spatial transcriptomics at near single-cell resolution.

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Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The dataset we generated in this study using spatial transcriptomics with matching high temporal resolution provides a gold mine of new knowledge. We were able to rediscover many interesting and important pieces of biology in the ovary and ovulation that were previously discovered but by decades of work, highlighting the power of unbiased and omics technologies, especially when they are coupled with multi-dimensional computational and analytical approaches. We were also able to make a number of new discoveries. For example, we identified early markers delineating different cell differentiation fate in the ovary, and we reported an additional step of follicle selection for ovulation. But these outcomes are only the beginning. As it is nearly impossible to study human ovary and ovulation at such high resolution in time and space, and because lab mice are the foremost model for understanding molecular and cellular regulation of ovarian biology, we hope other scientists with different perspectives will further mine this publicly available dataset for new insights that may translate into novel therapeutics to help women with infertility associated with ovarian dysfunction and impaired ovulation.

Perspectives