Int. J. Dev. Biol. 56: 859 - 866 (2012)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.120138fm

Vol 56, Issue 10-11-12

Special Issue: Female Germ Cells in Development & Tumors

Knowledge-based bioinformatics for the study of mammalian oocytes

Published: 5 February 2013

Francesca Mulas*^,1, Lucia Sacchi², Lan Zagar³, Silvia Garagna^1,4, Maurizio Zuccotti⁵, Blaz Zupan^1,3 and Riccardo Bellazzi*^,1,2

¹Centre for Tissue Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, ²Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell’Informazione, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italy, ³Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ⁴Laboratorio di Biologia dello Sviluppo, Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'Lazzaro Spallanzani', Università degli Studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italy and ⁵Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Biotecnologiche e Traslazionali, Università degli Studi di Parma, Italy

Abstract

Bioinformatics tools have been recently applied to study the differentiation of the mammalian oocyte during folliculogenesis. In this review, we will summarize our knowledge of 1) the use of biological databases for the extraction of relevant information, 2) bioinformatics methods for knowledge extraction and representation, 3) the application of these methods to the study of mammalian oocyte differentiation and 4) state-of the-art prediction approaches for the assessment and estimation of the cell differentiation status.

Keywords

knowledge extraction, database, oocyte, stem cell