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Poultry Science Dec 2015The study was designed to evaluate the effects of different dietary levels of rice bran (RB) in laying duck diets on performance, egg quality, oxidation status, egg yolk...
The study was designed to evaluate the effects of different dietary levels of rice bran (RB) in laying duck diets on performance, egg quality, oxidation status, egg yolk fatty acid composition, and hepatic expression of fatty acid metabolism-related genes. Longyan females (1080) with similar BW at 19 wk of age were randomly assigned to 6 dietary treatments, each consisting of 6 replicates of 30 birds. The basal diet (I) was a typical corn-soybean ration while the experimental diets (II to VI) substituted RB for corn and wheat bran and a small reduction of soybean meal. The level of substitution in diets (II to VI) was 6%, 12%, 18%, 24%, and 30%, respectively. The experiment lasted for 12 wks. Average egg weight and daily egg mass decreased linearly as the level of RB inclusion increased (P<0.001) and feed conversion ratio linearly increased (P<0.001). The proportions of C14:0 and C18:0 and total saturated fatty acids (SFA) in egg yolk linearly decreased with increasing RB, and many of the key polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), like C18:2 n-6 and C18:3 n-3, linearly increased (P<0.001), but not those of C20:5 n-3 and C22:6 n-3. There were linear decreases (P<0.001) in hepatic abundance of FAS and SREBP1 transcripts, with a substantial reduction to about 30% those of ducks fed the control diet; there were no treatment effects on productive performance, eggshell thickness, strength, Haugh unit, antioxidation status, and egg yolk cholesterol or triglyceride content (P>0.05). In conclusion, the current study suggests that ducks from 19 to 31 wk could be fed diets with up to about 18% RB without effect on the number of eggs produced, egg quality, and oxidative status. Increasing amounts of RB linearly increased egg yolk concentrations of key fatty acids like C18:2 n-6 and C18:3 n-3 and decreased the hepatic abundance of FAS and SREBP-1 transcripts.
Topics: Animal Feed; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Diet; Dietary Fiber; Ducks; Egg Yolk; Fatty Acids; Female; Gene Expression; Lipid Metabolism; Liver; Ovum; Random Allocation
PubMed: 26467013
DOI: 10.3382/ps/pev286 -
Omics : a Journal of Integrative Biology Dec 2014The rapid growth of published literature makes biomedical text mining increasingly invaluable for unpacking implicit knowledge hidden in unstructured text. We employed...
The rapid growth of published literature makes biomedical text mining increasingly invaluable for unpacking implicit knowledge hidden in unstructured text. We employed biomedical text mining and biological networks analyses to research the process of sperm egg recognition and binding (SERB). We selected from the literature the molecules expressed either on spermatozoa or on oocytes thought to be involved in SERB and, using an automated literature search software (Agilent Literature Search), we realized a network, SERBN, characterized by a hierarchical scale free and a small world topology. We used an integrated approach, either based on selection of hubs or by a cluster analysis, to discern the key molecules of SERB. We found that in most cases some of them are not directly situated on spermatozoa and oocyte, but are dispersed in oviductal fluid or embedded in exosomes present in the perivitelline space. To confirm and validate our results, we performed further analyses using STRING and Reactome FI software. Our findings underscore that the fertility is not a property of gametes in isolation, but rather depends on the functional integrity of the entire reproductive system. These observations collectively underscore the importance of integrative biology in exploring biological systems and in rethinking of fertility mechanisms in the light of this innovative approach.
Topics: Animals; Data Mining; Fertility; Humans; Male; Ovum; Software; Spermatozoa
PubMed: 25454512
DOI: 10.1089/omi.2014.0128 -
Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE Aug 2008The eggs of Xenopus laevis intact, lysed, and/or fractionated are useful for a wide variety of experiments. This protocol shows how to induce egg laying, collect and...
The eggs of Xenopus laevis intact, lysed, and/or fractionated are useful for a wide variety of experiments. This protocol shows how to induce egg laying, collect and dejelly the eggs, and sort the eggs to remove any damaged eggs.
Topics: Animals; Female; Ovulation Induction; Ovum; Xenopus laevis
PubMed: 19066501
DOI: 10.3791/890 -
Poultry Science Jun 2024Alpiniae oxyphylla fructus was extensively utilized both as dietary supplements and traditional herbal medicines for healthcare functions and has exhibited a positive...
Alpiniae oxyphyllae fructus improves production performance and egg quality of laying breeder hens by regulating reproductive hormones, antioxidant function, immunity and intestinal health.
Alpiniae oxyphylla fructus was extensively utilized both as dietary supplements and traditional herbal medicines for healthcare functions and has exhibited a positive impact on animal health. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of Alpiniae oxyphyllae fructus powder (AOP) on production performance, egg quality, egg yolk fatty acid composition, reproductive hormones, antioxidant capacity, immunity, anti-apoptosis ability, and intestinal health in hens. A total of 252 Hainan Wenchang laying hens (30-wk-old) were randomly divided into 3 groups with 6 replicates, a basic diet with 0 (CON), 1 g/kg AOP (AOP1), and 3 g/kg (AOP3) mixed AOP. The AOP supplementation was found to decrease the feed conversion ratio and embryo mortality but to increase the laying rate, average egg weight, and oviduct index linearly (p < 0.05). Furthermore, AOP treatment reduced the total saturated fatty acids and palmitic acid (C16:0) in the egg yolk while increasing eggshell strength, albumen height, and Haugh unit (p < 0.05). The serum levels of albumin and phosphorus were increased, whereas total cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose levels decreased as a result of AOP treatment (p < 0.05). The inclusion of 3 g/kg AOP had higher 17 β-estradiol and follicle-stimulating hormone levels in serum, while it up-regulated follicle-stimulating hormone receptor and gonadotropin-releasing hormone expression in ovary (p < 0.05). Dietary AOP strengthened the expression of nuclear factor erythroid2-related factor 2 in ovary and increased the activity of superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity, but had a lower malondialdehyde content in serum (p < 0.05). AOP at 3 g/kg up-regulated superoxide dismutase 1 and heme oxygenase 1 expression in jejunum and ovary (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, AOP supplementation down-regulated p53 expression in ovary and bcl-2-associated x expression in liver and jejunum, especially 3 g/kg of AOP had lower caspase-8 concentrations and down-regulated bcl-2-associated x and caspase-3 expression in ovary (p < 0.05). AOP treatment increased serum levels of immunoglobulin A and immunoglobulin M and upregulated interleukin-4 expression in the liver, while decreasing interleukin-1β expression in liver and ovary and nod-like receptor protein 3 expression in jejunum (p < 0.05). Dietary AOP increased the ratio of villus height to crypt depth but decreased crypt depth in jejunum, especially when 1 g/kg AOP increased expression levels of occludin, mucin-2, peptide-transporter 1, and sodium glucose cotransporter 1 in jejunum (p < 0.05). AOP treatment altered the composition of the cecal microbial community, as evidenced by increased abundance of Oscillospira and Phascolarctobacterium and reduced richness of Clostridiaceae_Clostridium. Dietary AOP supplementation enriched lipid, amino acid, and propanoate metabolism. Spearman's correlation analysis revealed that the genera Oscillospira, Blautia, and Megasphaera were related to laying performance and intestinal integrity. In brief, supplementation of AOP, especially at 3 g/kg, could improve production performance and egg quality of hens via modulating reproductive hormones, antioxidant capacity, immunity, intestinal barrier, and cecal microbiota. Overall, the present work recommends the dietary inclusion of AOP as a beneficial additive for improving the performance of hens.
Topics: Animals; Chickens; Female; Animal Feed; Diet; Dietary Supplements; Antioxidants; Random Allocation; Alpinia; Intestines; Fruit; Ovum; Egg Yolk; Reproduction; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
PubMed: 38652955
DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103770 -
The Journal of Cell Biology Dec 1995Using confocal microscopy, we visualized exocytosis during membrane resealing in sea urchin eggs and embryos. Upon wounding by a laser beam, both eggs and embryos showed...
Using confocal microscopy, we visualized exocytosis during membrane resealing in sea urchin eggs and embryos. Upon wounding by a laser beam, both eggs and embryos showed a rapid burst of localized Ca(2+)-regulated exocytosis. The rate of exocytosis was correlated quantitatively with successfully resealing. In embryos, whose activated surfaces must first dock vesicles before fusion, exocytosis and membrane resealing were inhibited by neurotoxins that selectively cleave the SNARE complex proteins, synaptobrevin, SNAP-25, and syntaxin. In eggs, whose cortical vesicles are already docked, vesicles could be reversibly undocked with externally applied stachyose. If cortical vesicles were undocked both exocytosis and plasma membrane resealing were completely inhibited. When cortical vesicles were transiently undocked, exposure to tetanus toxin and botulinum neurotoxin type C1 rendered them no longer competent for resealing, although botulinum neurotoxin type A was still ineffective. Cortical vesicles transiently undocked in the presence of tetanus toxin were subsequently fusion incompetent although to a large extent they retained their ability to redock when stachyose was diluted. We conclude that addition of internal membranes by exocytosis is required and that a SNARE-like complex plays differential roles in vesicle docking and fusion for the repair of disrupted plasma membrane.
Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Botulinum Toxins; Calcium; Cell Membrane; Exocytosis; Fertilization; Intracellular Membranes; Microscopy, Confocal; Microscopy, Video; Molecular Sequence Data; Neurotoxins; Oligosaccharides; Ovum; Sea Urchins; Tetanus Toxin; Wounds and Injuries
PubMed: 8557742
DOI: 10.1083/jcb.131.6.1747 -
PloS One 2014Xenopus laevis eggs are used as a biological model system for studying fertilization and early embryonic development in vertebrates. Most methods used for their...
Xenopus laevis eggs are used as a biological model system for studying fertilization and early embryonic development in vertebrates. Most methods used for their molecular analysis require elaborate sample preparation including separate protocols for the water soluble and lipid components. In this study, laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI), an ambient ionization technique, was used for direct mass spectrometric analysis of X. laevis eggs and early stage embryos up to five cleavage cycles. Single unfertilized and fertilized eggs, their animal and vegetal poles, and embryos through the 32-cell stage were analyzed. Fifty two small metabolite ions, including glutathione, GABA and amino acids, as well as numerous lipids including 14 fatty acids, 13 lysophosphatidylcholines, 36 phosphatidylcholines and 29 triacylglycerols were putatively identified. Additionally, some proteins, for example thymosin β4 (Xen), were also detected. On the subcellular level, the lipid profiles were found to differ between the animal and vegetal poles of the eggs. Radial profiling revealed profound compositional differences between the jelly coat vitelline/plasma membrane and egg cytoplasm. Changes in the metabolic profile of the egg following fertilization, e.g., the decline of polyamine content with the development of the embryo were observed using LAESI-MS. This approach enables the exploration of metabolic and lipid changes during the early stages of embryogenesis.
Topics: Amino Acids; Animals; Embryonic Development; Glutathione; Lipids; Ovum; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; Subcellular Fractions; Xenopus laevis; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
PubMed: 25506922
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115173 -
Journal of Andrology 1991The ability of spermatozoa to bind and penetrate zona-free hamster ova and the zonae pellucidae of domestic cat oocytes in vitro was compared between normospermic...
The ability of spermatozoa to bind and penetrate zona-free hamster ova and the zonae pellucidae of domestic cat oocytes in vitro was compared between normospermic (greater than 60% structurally normal spermatozoa per ejaculate) and teratospermic (less than 40% normal spermatozoa per ejaculate) domestic cats. The effects of culture media (Biggers, Whitten, Whittingham [BWW] versus modified Krebs Ringer bicarbonate [mKRB]) and simple dilution (DR), ejaculate centrifugation, and either resuspension (NS) or swim-up processing (SU) on penetration also were examined. High percentages of structurally normal spermatozoa were bound to zona-pellucida-free hamster ova regardless of the morphological forms in the inseminant. Mean percent normal spermatozoa bound to ova in DR, NS, and SU sperm aliquots from teratospermic male cats were not different (P greater than 0.05) from similarly treated normospermic aliquots. However, the percent penetration of hamster ova by normospermic ejaculates (10.5%) was superior (P less than 0.05) to that of teratospermic ejaculates (2.8%). Although swim-up processing improved percent sperm motility, progressive motility, and normal morphology in teratospermic ejaculates (P less than 0.05), no difference was observed in ovum penetration among the DR-treated, NS-treated, and SU-treated spermatozoa (P greater than 0.05). Culture medium had no effect on sperm binding in the hamster assay, but ovum penetration rate by spermatozoa in the normospermic ejaculates was enhanced (P less than 0.05) using mKRB (13.5%) when compared with BWW (7.6%) medium. Spermatozoa from teratospermic cats were capable of binding and penetrating cat zonae; however, sperm-zona interaction (defined as percent of oocytes with spermatozoa binding to or penetrating into the zona) was different (P less than 0.05) between normospermic (65.3%) and teratospermic (24.2%) cats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Topics: Animals; Cats; Cricetinae; Female; Male; Ovum; Sperm-Ovum Interactions; Spermatozoa; Zona Pellucida
PubMed: 2010349
DOI: No ID Found -
Scientific Reports Jul 2017The extracellular egg-coating envelope that comprises a meshwork of filaments polymerized by glycoproteins plays a pivotal role in species-selective sperm recognition...
The extracellular egg-coating envelope that comprises a meshwork of filaments polymerized by glycoproteins plays a pivotal role in species-selective sperm recognition and subsequent fertilization; however, the structural and rheological properties conferring fertilization competence to the egg-coating envelope remain poorly unveiled. Here we show several nanoscale-structural and viscoelastic properties of the egg-coat using the transmission electron microscopy and the quartz crystal microbalance experiments, following clamp of the egg-coat at either fertilization-competent or -incompetent statuses by short-term pretreatment with synthetic peptides. Individual filament of approximately 4.8 nm diameter crossed one another, forming several types of intersections. Higher competence-inducing treatment changed the proportion of V-, Y-, and T-type intersections, and induced more randomly deflected angles at intersections. Incompetence-inducing treatment increased the median of a Gaussian distribution of filament lengths that had a peak of 10-20 nm under control conditions; furthermore, this treatment created bumps in the 30-40 and 50-60 nm windows. Quartz crystal microbalance study revealed that viscoelasticity of the competent VE suspension was lower than that of incompetent VE, indicating that viscoelastic property required for successful fertilization resides within a specific range. These findings indicated that the architecture of the egg-coat is capable of rapid and dynamic remodeling, which determines fertilization efficiency.
Topics: Animals; Female; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Ovum; Peptide Library; Quartz Crystal Microbalance Techniques; Sperm-Ovum Interactions; Viscoelastic Substances; Xenopus Proteins; Xenopus laevis
PubMed: 28720818
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06093-3 -
Estimating yolk weight of duck eggs using VIS-NIR Spectroscopy and RGB images and whole egg weights.Poultry Science Jul 2024Duck eggs are widely-consumed food and cooking ingredient. The heavier yolk weight (YW) corresponds to a larger size and greater value. However, there is no...
Duck eggs are widely-consumed food and cooking ingredient. The heavier yolk weight (YW) corresponds to a larger size and greater value. However, there is no nondestructive method available to estimate the weight of the yolk. Accurate weight prediction of duck egg yolks must combine both phenotypic and internal information. In this research, we used Visible-Near Infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy to obtain internal information of duck eggs, and a high-definition camera to capture their phenotypic features. YW was predicted by combining the reduced spectral and RGB image information with the whole egg weight. We also investigated the impact of color and thickness of the duck egg on spectral transmittance (ST), as these factors can influence the extent of ST. The results showed that the spectral curves of duck eggs produced 2 peaks and 1 valley, which may be caused by the dual-frequency absorption of the C-H group and O-H group, and can be used to symbolize the internal information of duck eggs. The ST was somewhat affected by the color and thickness of the duck eggshell. Before modelling, Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to significantly reduce the dimensionality of the RGB image with spectral data. A partial least squares regression (PLSR) model was utilized to fit all the features. The test set yielded a coefficient of determination (R) of 0.82 and a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 1.05 g. After removing the eggshell's color and thickness features, the model showed an R of 0.79 and an RMSE of 1.11 g. This study demonstrated that the yolk weight of duck eggs can be estimated using VIS-NIR spectroscopy, RGB images and whole egg weight. Furthermore, the effects of shell color and thickness can be neglected.
Topics: Animals; Ducks; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; Egg Yolk; Color; Eggs; Ovum
PubMed: 38772094
DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103829 -
Scientific Reports Mar 2020Predation often has consistent effects on prey behavior and morphology, but whether the physiological mechanisms underlying these effects show similarly consistent...
Predation often has consistent effects on prey behavior and morphology, but whether the physiological mechanisms underlying these effects show similarly consistent patterns across different populations remains an open question. In vertebrates, predation risk activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and there is growing evidence that activation of the maternal HPA axis can have intergenerational consequences via, for example, maternally-derived steroids in eggs. Here, we investigated how predation risk affects a suite of maternally-derived steroids in threespine stickleback eggs across nine Alaskan lakes that vary in whether predatory trout are absent, native, or have been stocked within the last 25 years. Using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS), we detected 20 steroids within unfertilized eggs. Factor analysis suggests that steroids covary within and across steroid classes (i.e. glucocorticoids, progestogens, sex steroids), emphasizing the modularity and interconnectedness of the endocrine response. Surprisingly, egg steroid profiles were not significantly associated with predator regime, although they were more variable when predators were absent compared to when predators were present, with either native or stocked trout. Despite being the most abundant steroid, cortisol was not consistently associated with predation regime. Thus, while predators can affect steroids in adults, including mothers, the link between maternal stress and embryonic development is more complex than a simple one-to-one relationship between the population-level predation risk experienced by mothers and the steroids mothers transfer to their eggs.
Topics: Alaska; Animals; Chromatography, Liquid; Female; Lakes; Ovum; Predatory Behavior; Smegmamorpha; Steroids; Tandem Mass Spectrometry
PubMed: 32251316
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-61412-5