Knowledge-based bioinformatics for the study of mammalian oocytes

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.