The ovarian stages used to categorize individuals reflect the emerging and dominant oocyte stage within the ovary in relation to the total volume of the ovary. LMB offer the opportunity to characterize gene expression patterns at specific points in the reproductive process, since a cohort of maturing eggs go through the process in a synchronous manner. The present study contributes to an increased mechanistic understanding of the gene networks that are activated and inhibited in the teleostean ovary during oocyte development and identifies potential biomarkers of atresia that could be utilized in both aquaculture and ecotoxicology as predictors of disrupted reproductive capabilities in wild populations of fish. Some noteworthy examples of biological processes associated with the transition from PG to SG were glycolysis, ion transport, and chloride transport. For the transition from SG to OM, lipoprotein metabolic processes, MLN4924 electron transport, chloride transport, ubiquinone biosynthetic process, and aromatic compound metabolic processes were affected and for the transition from OM to OV, lipid transport, chloride transport, and cellular iron ion homeostasis were affected. Some noteworthy examples of biological processes affected with atresia were blood coagulation, lipid transport, protein import into mitochondrial inner membrane, notch signaling pathway, and cell proliferation. Gene set enrichment results for ovarian stages are shown in Table S4 in File S2. Major pathways that were increased in expression at early stages of follicular growth were Notch signaling, T-cell and B-cell receptor activation, and fibronectin, epidermal growth factor, and adenosine receptor signaling. The NK cell activation pathway is also significantly up-regulated,15�C 20% at early stages of ovarian development. At ovulation, many of these pathways were down-regulated. Pathways depressed at ovulation also included adrenergic receptor signaling, sphingolipid metabolism, and natural killer cell activation. At atresia, cell signaling pathways that are involved in gap junction and actin cytoskeleton regulation, gonadotrope and mast cell activation, and vasopressin receptor signaling were down-regulated while oxidative phosphorylation pathways and reactive oxygen species metabolism were increased. The largest difference in the gene networks were that atresia was marked with significant changes in cell structure relative to the other stages. In contrast to early growth stages, the NK cell activation pathway is significantly depressed by approximately 30% during atresia. Figure 5 shows an example of a curated pathway, and shows changes in members of the fibronectin receptor – catenin, beta 1 signalling pathway over follicular development. This pathway was significantly increased at early follicular growth stages and is decreased at ovulation and atresia. SNEA identified a number of expression networks that were involved in the Staurosporine side effects different stages of follicular development. Some examples include expression targets for LH signaling, which were depressed during vitellogenesis but increased 150% at ovulation. Other networks found to play a significant role in oocyte maturation included genes regulated by activins and inhibins, neuregulin 1, retinoid X receptor, alpha, nerve growth factor family, STAT5A, bone morphogenic protein 7, and toll-like receptor 4.