Biomarker-Based Nanotechnology for the Improvement of Reproductive Performance in Beef and Dairy Cattle

Abstract

Reproductive performance of livestock animals, including dairy and beef cattle, influences the productivity of agriculture in the US and worldwide. Artificial insemination (AI) is one technology with great potential to improve livestock reproductive efficiency. Particularly, gains in reproductive performance of AI sires can be made by identifying and eliminating bulls with inferior fertility/semen quality by testing and discarding individual semen collections/ejaculates with inferior fertilization potential and by eliminating defective spermatozoa from semen collected for AI. Both sire fertility testing and semen purification can potentially be improved through the application of nanotechnology. The necessary first step in this process is the identification and validation of sperm quality biomarkers; they are the differentially expressed sperm-borne proteins/ligands that can be objectively quantitated to measure sperm quality and to estimate future fertility. Proteins expressed on the sperm surface can be targeted using magnetic nanoparticles to allow for rapid, efficient removal of defective spermatozoa from semen. This article reviews recent progress in the identification of such biomarkers (e.g., ligands of lectins from Arachis hypogaea and Lens culinaris, sperm proteins ubiquitin and post-acrosomal, WW domain-binding protein [PAWP]), and also describes recent trials of nanoparticle-based technologies for fertility testing and the nanopurification of bull semen for commercial AI.