From the time oocytes leave quiescence, there are constant microenvironmental influences contributing to development, thus, acquiring developmental competence is not a simple, linear phenomenon. During folliculogenesis, oocytes experience many morphological and cytological changes that contribute towards the acquisition of developmental competence, a process defined by an oocyte's ability to progress through folliculogenesis, be fertilized, undergo cleavage and develop into an embryo. Many factors, such as ovarian follicle size, cow age, and the morphology of the cumulus-oocyte complex, have been extensively investigated to understand this process. In parallel to aiding in the understanding of oocyte biology, these features have been used to characterize an oocyte's ability to achieve competence. In addition, oocytes undergo intense gene transcription and protein translation to accumulate the maternal stores. When the oocyte is fully grown, most genes are transcriptionally inactive, and the chromatin is densely compacted. More recently, RNA profiling has been used to further define the transcriptional parameters that are associated with oocyte development. Here, focusing on cattle, we provide an overview of the experimental models commonly used to understand the underlying biology related to oocyte developmental competence. We compiled public data and showed that cattle oocytes can express over 15,000 protein-coding genes, suggesting a complex transcriptome landscape. Surprisingly, less than 2% of the expressed genes have been linked to developmental competence. The identification of the gene products that contribute to oocyte development, and understanding their biological function, are a vital component of our quest towards defining oocyte developmental competence at the molecular level.

中文翻译：

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与牛（Bos taurus）卵母细胞发育能力相关的 RNA 储存蓝图。

从卵母细胞离开静止期开始，就会有持续的微环境影响促进发育，因此，获得发育能力并不是一个简单的线性现象。在卵泡发生过程中，卵母细胞经历了许多有助于获得发育能力的形态学和细胞学变化，这一过程由卵母细胞通过卵泡发生、受精、卵裂和发育成胚胎的能力定义。许多因素，如卵泡大小、母牛年龄和卵丘-卵母细胞复合体的形态，已被广泛研究以了解这一过程。在帮助理解卵母细胞生物学的同时，这些特征已被用于表征卵母细胞获得能力的能力。此外，卵母细胞经历强烈的基因转录和蛋白质翻译以积累母体储存。当卵母细胞完全生长时，大多数基因转录失活，染色质被紧密压实。最近，RNA 分析已被用于进一步定义与卵母细胞发育相关的转录参数。在这里，我们以牛为重点，概述了通常用于了解与卵母细胞发育能力相关的潜在生物学的实验模型。我们汇编了公共数据并显示牛卵母细胞可以表达超过 15,000 个蛋白质编码基因，表明转录组景观复杂。令人惊讶的是，只有不到 2% 的表达基因与发育能力有关。鉴定有助于卵母细胞发育的基因产物，