Molecular detection of bovine kobuviruses in Italy.

Faecal samples obtained from either asymptomatic or diarrhoeic calves in Italy were screened for bovine kobuviruses (BKVs) using specific primers. BKV RNA was detected in 4.9 % of the samples, with higher positivity rates in diarrhoeic calves (5.

Type-1 cannabinoid receptors reduce membrane fluidity of capacitated boar sperm by impairing their activation by bicarbonate.

Background: Mammalian spermatozoa acquire their full fertilizing ability (so called capacitation) within the female genital tract, where they are progressively exposed to inverse gradients of inhibiting and stimulating molecules.

Methodology/principal Findings: In the present research, the effect on this process of anandamide, an endocannabinoid that can either activate or inhibit cannabinoid receptors depending on its concentration, and bicarbonate, an oviductal activatory molecule, was assessed, in order to study the role exerted by the type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) in the process of lipid membrane remodeling crucial to complete capacitation. To this aim, boar sperm were incubated in vitro under capacitating conditions (stimulated by bicarbonate) in the presence or in the absence of methanandamide (Met-AEA), a non-hydrolysable analogue of anandamide.

Characterization of the endocannabinoid system in boar spermatozoa and implications for sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction.

Anandamide (AEA) is the endogenous ligand of cannabinoid (CB) receptors, and as such it plays several central and peripheral activities. Regulation of female fertility by AEA has attracted growing interest, yet a role for this endocannabinoid in controlling sperm function and male fertility in mammals has been scarcely investigated. In this study we report unprecedented evidence that boar sperm cells have the biochemical machinery to bind and degrade AEA, i.

The capability of reprogramming the male chromatin after fertilization is dependent on the quality of oocyte maturation.

The present experiments compared the ability of pig oocytes matured either in vivo or in vitro to structurally reorganize the penetrated sperm chromatin into male pronucleus (PN) and to carry out, in parallel, the epigenetic processes of global chromatin methylation and acetylation, 12-14 h after in vitro fertilization (IVF). In addition, PN distribution of histone deacetylase (HDAC), a major enzyme interfacing DNA methylation and histone acetylation, was investigated. The ability of the oocyte to operate an efficient block to polyspermy was markedly affected by maturation.