Abstract
BackgroundIn both beef and dairy cattle, the majority of early embryo loss occurs within the first 14 days following insemination. During this time-period, embryos are completely dependent on their maternal uterine environment for development, growth and ultimately survival, therefore an optimum uterine environment is critical to their survival. The objective of this study was to investigate whether differences in endometrial gene expression during the mid-luteal phase of the estrous cycle exist between crossbred beef heifers ranked as either high (HF) or low fertility (LF) (following four rounds of artificial insemination (AI)) using the Affymetrix® 23 K Bovine Gene Chip.ResultsConception rates for each of the four rounds of AI were within a normal range: 70–73.3%. Microarray analysis of endometrial tissue collected on day 7 of the estrous cycle detected 419 differentially expressed genes (DEG) between HF (n = 6) and LF (n = 6) animals. The main gene pathways affected were, cellular growth and proliferation, angiogenesis, lipid metabolism, cellular and tissue morphology and development, inflammation and metabolic exchange. DEG included, FST, SLC45A2, MMP19, FADS1 and GALNT6.ConclusionsThis study highlights, some of the molecular mechanisms potentially controlling uterine endometrial function during the mid-luteal phase of the estrous cycle, which may contribute to uterine endometrial mediated impaired fertility in cattle. Differentially expressed genes are potential candidate genes for the identification of genetic variation influencing cow fertility, which may be incorporated into future breeding programmes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-234) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
In both beef and dairy cattle, the majority of early embryo loss occurs within the first 14 days following insemination
A total of 31 heifers qualified as HF or low fertility (LF); 15 HF and 16 LF, of which three of these were eliminated from the study due to the presence of ovarian abnormalities detected at ultrasound scanning
Six HF and 6 LF heifers were randomly chosen within their respective fertility groups for slaughter on D7
Summary
In both beef and dairy cattle, the majority of early embryo loss occurs within the first 14 days following insemination. During this time-period, embryos are completely dependent on their maternal uterine environment for development, growth and survival, an optimum uterine environment is critical to their survival. The authors suggested that “uterine” rather than “ovarian” factors may be responsible for the variation observed This uterine effect was hypothesized in similar studies examining phenotypic differences between high and low fertility animals [11,12,13]. Data from our laboratory suggest a repeatability estimate of 0.18 for embryo survival in beef heifers [13] and heritability estimates for conception rate have been reported to exceed 0.20 [14,15]
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