Publications by authors named "B Daigneault"
Article Synopsis
- The success of equine assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is hindered by the limited storage time and motility of cooled stallion sperm during transport.
- Experiments tested whether controlling the temperature of shipping containers could extend the viability of cooled semen, revealing that sperm stored with specific temperature regulations showed better motility over time.
- Results indicated that maintaining sperm at a consistent 5 °C allowed for effective storage for over 7 days, significantly improving the logistics of ART.
Global warming is a major challenge to the sustainable and humane production of food because of the increased risk of livestock to heat stress. Here, the example of the prolactin receptor () gene is used to demonstrate how gene editing can increase the resistance of cattle to heat stress by the introduction of mutations conferring thermotolerance. Several cattle populations in South and Central America possess natural mutations in that result in affected animals having short hair and being thermotolerant.
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- - Current methods for producing high-quality bovine embryos are complex and often inefficient, necessitating the exploration of alternative techniques like blastomere complementation to improve embryo generation efficiency and maintain cell pluripotency.
- - The study involved fertilizing bovine oocytes to create 4-cell embryos, isolating their blastomeres, and culturing them through two passages, resulting in a 29% blastocyst development rate for the first passage and 25% for the second, though with diminished cell pluripotency markers.
- - Results suggest that while the reconstructed embryos can produce genetically identical offspring, increased passaging leads to better formation of trophectoderm cells at the cost of inner cell mass integrity, indicating potential uses in
Gestational diet manipulation can lead to inadequate fetal nutrient supply resulting in low birth weight, limited postnatal growth, and consequently, reduced reproductive performance in the progeny. However, effects of short-term maternal pre-conceptional dietary manipulation on postnatal growth and reproductive parameters of male offspring in large animals remains unexplored. To determine these consequences, female crossbred (Polypay x Dorset) sheep were allocated to three groups (n = 33/group) of dietary manipulation for 21 days prior to mating under the following conditions: (1) control at 100 % of maintenance energy requirements (40 Kcal of metabolizable energy/kg body weight [BW]), (2) undernutrition (UN) at 50 % of Control intake, and (3) overnutrition (ON) at 200 % of maintenance energy.
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- PPARG is crucial for placental function and plays previously unexplored roles in early embryonic development, particularly in bovine embryos.
- Bovine embryos with higher PPARG expression show fewer cells and altered cell types, while pharmacological manipulation of PPARG activity impacts blastocyst development and gene expression linked to placental formation.
- The study indicates that PPARG has both maternal and embryonic influences on embryo development, suggesting it regulates critical pathways for successful implantation and growth.