Fig. 1

Experimental and analytical design. Six laying hens were euthanized to obtain the F5 pre-ovulatory follicle and a group of 3–4 pre-recruitment follicles. RNA was isolated from the follicles and RNA-Seq was performed using Illumina NovaSeq 6000. The RNA-Seq data was analyzed using a differential gene expression analysis. A gene regulatory network was built using the algorithm ARACNe followed by algorithm VIPER in order to identify the gene Master Regulators (Figure was created with BioRender.com using an institutional license sponsored by University of Delaware Office for Research).