First Results in the Use of Bovine Ear Notch Tag for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus Detection and Genetic Analysis.

Background: Infection due to bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is endemic in most cattle-producing countries throughout the world. The key elements of a BVDV control programme are biosecurity, elimination of persistently infected animals and surveillance. Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) is a notifiable disease in Belgium and an official eradication programme started from January 2015, based on testing ear notches sampled during the official identification and registration of calves at birth.

Characterization of sperm plasma membrane properties after cholesterol modification: consequences for cryopreservation of rainbow trout spermatozoa.

During cryopreservation, the cell plasma membrane faces severe perils, including lipid phase separation, solute effects, and osmotic stresses associated with ice crystallization. How the initial biophysical properties of the plasma membrane can be modulated before cryopreservation in order to influence cellular resistance to the freeze-thaw stress is addressed in this study. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) spermatozoa were chosen because the lack of an acrosome in this species suppresses potential interactions of cryopreservation with capacitation.

Lipophilic oligonucleotides spontaneously insert into lipid membranes, bind complementary DNA strands, and sequester into lipid-disordered domains.

For the development of surface functionalized bilayers, we have synthesized lipophilic oligonucleotides to combine the molecular recognition mechanism of nucleic acids and the self-assembly characteristics of lipids in planar membranes. A lipophilic oligonucleotide consisting of 21 thymidine units and two lipophilic nucleotides with an alpha-tocopherol moiety as a lipophilic anchor was synthesized using solid-phase methods with a phosphoramadite strategy. The interaction of the water soluble lipophilic oligonucleotide with vesicular lipid membranes and its capability to bind complementary DNA strands was studied using complementary methods such as NMR, EPR, DSC, fluorescence spectroscopy, and fluorescence microscopy.

The bovine seminal plasma protein PDC-109 extracts phosphorylcholine-containing lipids from the outer membrane leaflet.

The bovine seminal plasma protein PDC-109 modulates the maturation of bull sperm cells by removing lipids, mainly phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol, from their cellular membrane. Here, we have characterized the process of extraction of endogenous phospholipids and of their respective analogues. By measuring the PDC-109-mediated release of fluorescent phospholipid analogues from lipid vesicles and from biological membranes (human erythrocytes, bovine epididymal sperm cells), we showed that PDC-109 extracts phospholipids with a phosphorylcholine headgroup mainly from the outer leaflet of these membranes.

Localization of phosphatidylserine in boar sperm cell membranes during capacitation and acrosome reaction.

One of the essential properties of mammalian, including sperm, plasma membranes is a stable transversal lipid asymmetry with the aminophospholipids, phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), typically in the inner, cytoplasmic leaflet. The maintenance of this nonrandom lipid distribution is important for the homeostasis of the cell. To clarify the relevance of lipid asymmetry to sperm function, we have studied the localization of PS in boar sperm cell membranes.