362 SEX RATIO OF IN VITRO-PRODUCED BLASTOCYSTS OBTAINED USING FROZEN SEMEN FROM A CLONED BULL OR ITS ORIGINAL CELL DONOR

Abstract

Bulls obtained by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) have proved to develop normally, produce sperm, and be fertile (Shiga et al. 2005 Theriogenology 64, 334–343; Tecirlioglu et al. 2006 Theriogenology 65, 1783–1799). However, due to epigenetic variability encountered with clones, it cannot be excluded that major alterations may affect the X chromosome and especially the dosage of X inactivation in female embryos. This could result in a deviation of the sex ratio in offspring. To test this hypothesis, the sperm from a cloned bull was used in IVF to assess its ability to induce a different proportion of male and female embryos when compared to results obtained with the sperm of the original donor before cloning. In the present experiment, semen was collected twice weekly during 3 months from a 3-year-old cloned bull of the Charolais breed (H-2) and frozen-stored. Samples from 3 different ejaculates were used in comparison with control frozen straws from the original bull (H-0), prepared at the same age, to produce in vitro embryos. A total of 6 replicate IVF experiments were performed on the same batches of in vitro-matured oocytes (n = 654) using the standard swim-up and IVF technique in the laboratory. Twenty hours after insemination, presumptive zygotes were vortexed and cultured for 7 days in microdrops of B2 medium with Vero cells. Fertilization, cleavage, and blastocyst formation was assessed, and by Day 7, all of the blastocysts were individually frozen after grading. Two groups of 40 representative blastocysts derived from each bull (clone or donor) were used to determine the sex ratio using the sexing kit developed by UNCEIA R&D (Maisons-Alfort, France). Percentages between groups were compared by chi-square test. Semen from the cloned bull resulted in significantly lower fertilization and cleavage rates than that from the original donor (82.7% and 70% vs. 94.6% and 91%, respectively; P < 0.01), but further in vitro development was not different, as the proportions of blastocysts/cleaved were, respectively, 31.5% (74/235) vs. 38.7% (112/290). Sex determination was achieved in 79/80 of the in vitro-produced embryos and indicated that 55% of the blastocysts derived from the clone were male (22/40) and 45% female (18/40). This was not different from the proportion of male (61.5%, 24/39) and female (38.5%, 15/39) embryos in the group derived from semen of the original donor bull. In conclusion, these preliminary results indicate that the semen from this cloned Charolais bull has the same potential for in vitro embryo production as its original cell donor, and there is no evidence that SCNT could induce any deviation of the sex ratio. This observation needs to be confirmed with other sets of cloned bulls. (Shiga et al. 2005 Theriogenology 64, 334–343. Tecirlioglu et al. 2006 Theriogenology 65, 1783–1799.)