This article is a review included in a special issue of teh magazine "Biochimica et Biophysica Acta" entitled "Nuclear receptors in animal development". It summarizes the most recent findings on the key roles played by the insect hormone ecdysone in different steps of insect oogenesis. Essentially, in larval stages, ecdysone first represses and later activates stem cell niche and primordial germ cell differentiation. In the adult, ecdysone stimulates the proliferation of germline stem cells and plays an important role in stem cell niche and maintenance.

Ref. Art. Belles, X., Piulachs, M.D. Ecdysone signalling and ovarian development in insects: from stem cells to ovarian follicle
formation. Biochim. Biophys. Acta (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2014.05.025