A34-Lancast«r Fanning, Saturday, June 10, 2000
From the Department of Dairy and Animal Science
This regular column from Penn State’s Department of Dairy and
Animal Science features the research findings, student opportunities, and
resports on other important topics generated in the Department. The
back issues of the column are archived on Lancaster Farming’s
Internet www.lancasterfarming.com home page. Look for them.
Prospects For Improving
Fertility Of Bull Semen
Gary Killian and Dan Hagen,
Penn State Dairy and Animal
Science Department
Efficient reproduction is
critically important to the
financial success of the dairy
cattle industry. More than 70%
of the dairy cows m the United
States are bred by artificial
insemination using semen from
genetically superior sires. On the
average, about 50% of these
matings result in birth of calves
Given these results, there is
considerable interest in improving
pregnancy rates to shorten the
average calving interval for a
dairy herd, thereby increasing
profits
Researchers at Penn State
University’s College of
Agricultural Sciences are
studying how the fertility of
sperm from bulls is influenced by
proteins that are present in the
male and female reproductive
tracts The dairy bulls used for
artificial insemination are unique
because extensive data have been
gathered to document their
individual fertility Fertility
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assessment is based on use of
their semen to inseminate
thousands of females, a feat made
possible only through the use of
artificial insemination and good
record keeping. Because the
fertility of individual bulls is
known, comparisons between the
protein composition of the
seminal fluid in which sperm are
suspended are possible for semen
from higher and lower fertility
bulls Comparisons are made
between bulls by preparing
protein maps of seminal fluid
using a technique known as two
dimensional polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis. The technique
provides information about the
protein size and pH associated
with the more than 50 proteins in
the map
Penn State researchers
discovered that two proteins are
present in greater concentrations
in seminal fluid of higher fertility
bulls than in lower fertility bulls.
Additionally, lower fertility bulls
tended to have greater
concentrations of two different
proteins. These studies are
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painstaking in nature, because the
fertility proteins represent much
less than 1% of all of the proteins
present in seminal fluid.
What are the fertility
proteins m seminal fluid 9 The
process of identifying the fertility
proteins involves determining the
sequence of amino acids, or
protein building blocks, which are
unique to each protein The
process is tedious because of the
small amount of protein in an
individual spot of a map
However, working with
colleagues at the National
Institutes of Health, and the
Osaka Bioscience Institute, Japan,
the two high fertility proteins
were identified as osteopontin and
prostaglandin-D-synthase. The
identity of the two low fertility
proteins in seminal fluid remains
unknown.
Osteopontin was originally
discovered in bone matrix but
also has been found in many other
tissues of the body, where
osteopontin facilitates attachment
and signaling among cells.
Prostaglandin D synthase is
present in high concentrations in
human cerebral spinal fluid where
it appears to be involved in sleep
induction. Prostaglandin D
synthase may function in
prostaglandin metabolism and or
in transport of retinoids such as
vitamin A, which is essential for
normal sperm production.
The major challenge now
confronting Penn State scientists
is to understand how _the high
fertility proteins actually improve
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male fertility. In order to study
the effect of the proteins on
sperm, bioassays are being used
to determine whether treatment of
sperm with these proteins
improves the rate of fertilization
and embryo development in vitro.
If a beneficial effect were shown
in the laboratory, field trials
would follow. The field trials
would be used to confirm that
cows inseminated with sperm
treated with high fertility proteins
have improved pregnancy rates.
Unfortunately, conducting the
studies outlined above requires
more of the high fertility proteins
than can be realistically purified
from seminal fluid. Producing
recombinant forms of the proteins
in the laboratory using molecular
biology techniques is solving this
problem.
This story began by
recognizing that dairy bulls used
for artificial insemination are
unique experimental animals with
documented fertility. These
circumstances have made it
possible to establish, using a
variety of analytical tools, that
proteins associated with fertility
do exist in bull semen. As new
information becomes available on
how these proteins may function
to enhance fertility, practical
applications are likely to emerge.
This information should be useful
in developing diagnostic tests for
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screening bulls of unknown
fertility, and boosting the fertility
of lower fertility bulls by the
addition of the high fertility
proteins to semen extenders used
for artificial insemination. These
developments are likely to
improve pregnancy rates for a
dairy herd and, in turn, farm
profitability.
Another current area of
research has potential impact on
reproductive performance of
livestock species. A laboratory
assay method, known as a sperm
binding assay, is being further
developed to compare the fertility
of an individual male with other
males. This assay is based on the
ability of sperm of a variety of
species to' bind to a membrane
derived from chicken eggs. The
objective of the current studies is
to develop a method that can be
used to identify young
prospective herd sires that have
the highest fertility. Although this
research began only recently,
results to date are encouraging.
This line of research will not
make it possible to improve the
fertility of an individual male.
Instead, by providing a means to
identify the most fertile males and
making it possible to rank males
according to their fertility, it
should lead to more-informed sire
selection, higher herd fertility and
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