Bioscientifica Proceedings

Abstract unavailable© 2013 Context Products Ltd...

Summary. Ovine and bovine trophoblast protein-1 (oTP-1 and bTP-1) have been strongly implicated as antiluteolytic agents and responsible for maternal recognition of pregnancy in sheep and cattle, respectively. Both are interferons (IFN) belonging to the IFN-α family, but their length (172 residues versus 166 for most IFN-α) places them in an unusual subclass (the IFN-αII). The various isoforms of oTP-1 and bTP-1 produced by trophoblas...

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...

Evidence is presented that bovine somatotrophin (bST) treatment of lactating dairy cows enhances both expression of oviductal insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) mRNA and endometrial insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) mRNA between day 3 and day 7 of the oestrous cycle. mRNA encoding growth hormone (GH) receptor in endometrial tissues increased between day 3 and day 7 of the oestrous cycle. The changes induced by bST treatment may contribute to stimulatio...

Abstract unavailableKeywords: inhibin; activin; follistatin. αN peptide; ovary; follicle; corpus luteum© 1991 Journals of Reproduction & Fertility Ltd...

It has been demonstrated that variations in litter size or ovulation rate in different breeds of sheep can be associated with the segregation of several major genes. This set of natural mutants constitutes a valuable resource to determine key points in the biochemical pathways controlling the development of ovarian follicles. The French genetic programmes were devised to identify two of these genes: the Booroola (FecB) and Lacaune genes. The FecB pro...

During ejaculation in the boar, sperm cohorts emitted in epididymal cauda fluid are sequentially exposed and resuspended in different mixtures of accessory sex gland secretion. This paper reviews the relevance of such unevenly composed fractions of seminal plasma (SP) in vivo on sperm transport and sperm function and how this knowledge could benefit boar semen processing for artificial insemination (Al). The firstly ejaculated spermatozoa (first 10 ml of the spe...

Conceptus development in mammals depends on an intra-uterine environment filled with histotroph that includes molecules that are secreted by uterine epithelia and/or selectively transported into the uterine lumen. In pigs, total recoverable glucose, fructose, arginine, leucine and glutamine increase in histotroph with advancing days of the peri-implantation period of pregnancy and in allantoic fluid later in gestation. During pregnancy, the uterine luminal epithelium (LE...

Embryo transfer (ET) should play a critical role in the pig industry because it allows the movement and introduction of new genetic material into a herd with minimal risk of disease transmission and reduced transportation costs. In addition, embryo movement could prevent the potential health and welfare problems associated with transporting live pigs. Although the first successful ET was reported more than 60 years ago, the commercial use of this procedure in pigs is sti...

Almost 40 years ago, in 1981, the University of Nottingham Faculty of Agricultural Science hosted their 34th Easter School, which in that year was on the topic of control of pig reproduction. The proceedings of that meeting were published as Control of Pig Reproduction by Butterworths, London in 1982. The success of the conference, coupled with the favourable reviews of the published proceedings, highlighted the value of an international conference which brought together exper...