Bioscientifica Proceedings

Summary. In Exp. 1, sheep fetuses (2 male and 3 female) were gonadectomized between Days 70 and 120 of gestation and their blood LH and FSH levels were compared to those of control animals (4 male, 6 female) at regular times during the first year after birth. In Exp. 2. fetuses (3 male and 5 female) were gonadectomized between Days 50 and 60 of gestation and gonadotrophin levels at Day 90 of gestation were compared to those of control fetuses of the same age. ...

Summary. The relationship between the pituitary gland and testis in rams was studied from birth to sexual maturity. The concentrations of LH, FSH and testosterone increased between 5 and 7 weeks of age; the rise was not correlated with any specific cytological change in the testis. An augmented pituitary response to LH-RH was demonstrated as levels of gonadotrophin increased. It is unclear whether this change in sensitivity plays a role in initiation of the pu...

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a key hormone in the regulation of follicular development. Although the existence of FSH heterogeneity is well established, the physiological significance of this pleomorphism remains unknown. Observed changes in circulating FSH heterogeneity during critical reproductive events such as puberty and reproductive cyclicity suggest that different combinations of FSH isoforms reach the target sites during different physiological states to influ...

The development of new technologies that would increase the efficiency for generation of transgenic livestock and would overcome some of the problems associated with random insertion of the transgene will greatly benefit animal agriculture. A potential alternative technology to pronuclear injection for the generation of transgenic pigs involves the isolation, culture and genetic manipulation of cell lines that can be reintroduced into the embryo for participation in the f...

With the advent of next generation sequencing platforms (RNA-seq), transcriptional profiling permits the characterization of millions of RNAs from even the most limiting samples like early embryos. High-throughput RNA-seq can generate over 600 gigabases (Gb) in a single sequencing run, providing a near-complete record of all of the genes expressed in a sample at the time of collection. Condensing and finding coherence in the immense amount of raw data generated by transc...