2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of a novel system enabling efficient reproduction of cattle with superior traits

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20K21376
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 42:Veterinary medical science, animal science, and related fields
Research Institution	Kindai University
Principal Investigator	MIYAMOTO KEI 近畿大学, 生物理工学部, 准教授 (40740684)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	山之内忠幸独立行政法人家畜改良センター, 牧場・支場, 調査役・係長 (30713581) 松田秀雄独立行政法人家畜改良センター, 本所(企画調整部技術グループ), 調査役・係長 (30442685)
Project Period (FY)	2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
Keywords	ウシ / トランスクリプトーム / RNA-seq / 卵成熟 / 極体 / 高発生能
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In the field of livestock reproduction, improving the conception rate of in vitro produced bovine embryos is an urgent issue. The low fertility is presumably linked to deterioration of embryo quality. In this study, we focused on maternal transcripts in zygotes, and tried to identify the transcripts related to embryo quality in order to establish a system to predict the developmental ability of fertilized bovine embryos by taking advantage of the expression levels of those maternal transcripts. Transcriptomes of zygotes and their sibling polar bodies were examined and gene expression was compared between zygotes with high developmental abilities and those with low abilities. We then identified transcripts whose expression was specifically altered in zygotes with high developmental potentials. Furthermore, we have shown a system for predicting bovine zygotes with high developmental abilities and good genetic traits by examining expression and sequence information of the transcripts.
Free Research Field	生殖生物学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究により、高い発生能力を有すると予測されるウシ卵を、受精後間もない段階で選別することが原理的に可能であることがわかった。受精後すぐに卵を選別することにより、母体への移植前に受精卵の発生能を予測し、胚の受胎率向上に寄与する。さらに、受精卵に付随する極体から全転写物情報を得ることにより、ウシの肉質にかかわる遺伝子情報も取得できる。これは、受精卵の段階で将来高い付加価値を有するウシを産み分けるシステムへとつながる。このように、畜産業において中心的な課題であるウシ胚の低受胎率改善と、高付加価値のウシを効率よく繁殖するために貢献する研究成果を得た。