Reproduction and reproductive tract morphology of male and female pigs whose mothers were heat stressed during the second month of gestation.

The primary objective was to assess the development of fetal gonads and measure the subsequent reproductive capacity of boars and gilts whose mother was either subjected to gestational heat stress (GHS) or thermoneutral (GTN; control) conditions during pregnancy. Gilts were subjected to either GHS (28 to 38 °C; 65% to 88% relative humidity [RH]; n = 30) or GTN (17 to 22 °C; 56% to 65% RH; n = 29) for the second month of gestation (a period that coincides with a critical window of gonadal development). A subset of GHS (n = 12) and GTN (n = 11) gilts was sacrificed immediately following treatment for the collection of pregnancy data.

Concurrent and long-term associations between the endometrial microbiota and endometrial transcriptome in postpartum dairy cows.

Background: Fertility in dairy cows depends on ovarian cyclicity and on uterine involution. Ovarian cyclicity and uterine involution are delayed when there is uterine dysbiosis (overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria). Fertility in dairy cows may involve a mechanism through which the uterine microbiota affects ovarian cyclicity as well as the transcriptome of the endometrium within the involuting uterus.

Predicting residual feed intake status using rumen microbial profiles in ewe lambs1.

Including feed efficiency as a trait for selection has gained interest in the sheep industry because it can result in reduced feed inputs or improve stocking rates, both of which translate into increased profitability for the producer. It is of interest whether the feed efficiency status of a testing population of sheep could be predicted using rumen microbial profiles associated with divergent feed efficiency status in a training population of sheep. Two populations of ewes were fed the same diet, and each group was evaluated for feed efficiency.

Genetic, maternal, and heterosis effects on voluntary water consumption in mice.

In standard laboratory conditions, inbred mouse strains with normal kidney function show a 4-fold range of daily water consumption. This study uses two strains of inbred mice identified as high and low consumers, their reciprocal F1 crosses, and inter se bred F2s. Daily consumption data were collected on 607 animals for 4 d during the 4th, 5th, and 6th wk using custom water bottles.

Poor feed efficiency in sheep is associated with several structural abnormalities in the community metabolic network of their ruminal microbes.

Ruminant animals have a symbiotic relationship with the microorganisms in their rumens. In this relationship, rumen microbes efficiently degrade complex plant-derived compounds into smaller digestible compounds, a process that is very likely associated with host animal feed efficiency. The resulting simpler metabolites can then be absorbed by the host and converted into other compounds by host enzymes.

RUMINANT NUTRITION SYMPOSIUM: Tiny but mighty: the role of the rumen microbes in livestock production.

The microbes inhabiting the rumen convert low-quality, fibrous, plant material into useable energy for the host ruminant. Consisting of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, archaea, and viruses, the rumen microbiome composes a sophisticated network of symbiosis essential to maintenance, immune function, and overall production efficiency of the host ruminant. Robert Hungate laid the foundation for rumen microbiome research.

Genotype by environment interaction for stayability of Red Angus in the United States.

Bulls are used across a wide variety of environments through the use of artificial insemination. However, not all bulls rank the same for genetic merit in all environments. Sire selection could be more accurate via improved methods of characterization.

Diet shifts provoke complex and variable changes in the metabolic networks of the ruminal microbiome.

Background: Grazing mammals rely on their ruminal microbial symbionts to convert plant structural biomass into metabolites they can assimilate. To explore how this complex metabolic system adapts to the host animal's diet, we inferred a microbiome-level metabolic network from shotgun metagenomic data.

Results: Using comparative genomics, we then linked this microbial network to that of the host animal using a set of interface metabolites likely to be transferred to the host.

A randomized controlled trial to evaluate outcomes of a workplace self-management intervention and an intensive monitoring intervention.

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare outcomes of two voluntary workplace health management methods: an adapted worksite self-management (WSM) approach and an intensive health monitoring (IM) approach. Research participants were randomly assigned to either the WSM group or the IM group by a computer-generated list (n = 180; 92 WSM and 88 IM). Participants completed baseline, 3 and 12-month follow-up surveys.

The players may change but the game remains: network analyses of ruminal microbiomes suggest taxonomic differences mask functional similarity.

By mapping translated metagenomic reads to a microbial metabolic network, we show that ruminal ecosystems that are rather dissimilar in their taxonomy can be considerably more similar at the metabolic network level. Using a new network bi-partition approach for linking the microbial network to a bovine metabolic network, we observe that these ruminal metabolic networks exhibit properties consistent with distinct metabolic communities producing similar outputs from common inputs. For instance, the closer in network space that a microbial reaction is to a reaction found in the host, the lower will be the variability of its enzyme copy number across hosts.

Inhibition of Gli/hedgehog signaling in prostate cancer cells by "cancer bush" Sutherlandia frutescens extract.

Sutherlandia frutescens is a medicinal plant, traditionally used to treat various types of human diseases, including cancer. Previous studies of several botanicals link suppression of prostate cancer growth with inhibition of the Gli/hedgehog (Gli/Hh) signaling pathway. Here we hypothesized the anti-cancer effect of S.

Diet alters both the structure and taxonomy of the ovine gut microbial ecosystem.

We surveyed the ruminal metagenomes of 16 sheep under two different diets using Illumina pair-end DNA sequencing of raw microbial DNA extracted from rumen samples. The resulting sequence data were bioinformatically mapped to known prokaryotic 16S rDNA sequences to identify the taxa present in the samples and then analysed for the presence of potentially new taxa. Strikingly, the majority of the microbial individuals found did not map to known taxa from 16S sequence databases.

Black cohosh does not exert an estrogenic effect on the breast.

Women's Health Initiative findings indicate that hormone replacement therapy may increase breast cancer and cardiovascular disease risk. Black cohosh extract (BCE) is a popular alternative that reduced menopausal symptoms in several clinical trials. Preclinical studies have addressed the estrogenic properties of BCE, with conflicting results.

Expression profiling of heat stress effects on mice fed ergot alkaloids.

Fescue toxicosis affects wild and domestic animals consuming ergot alkaloids contained in tall fescue forage infected with the endophytic fungus, Neotyphodium coenophialum. When animals are consuming infected fescue (E+) forage during periods of elevated ambient temperatures (summer), a range of phenotypic disorders collectively called summer slump is observed. It is characterized by hyperthermia, with an accompanying decrease in feed intake, growth, milk yield, and reproductive fitness.

Developmental expression of 2489 gene clusters during pig embryogenesis: an expressed sequence tag project.

Identification of mRNAs that are present at early stages of embryogenesis is critical for a better understanding of development. To this end, cDNA libraries were constructed from germinal vesicle-stage oocytes, in vivo-produced four-cell- and blastocyst-stage embryos, and from in vitro-produced four-cell- and blastocyst-stage embryos. Randomly picked clones (10 848) were sequenced from the 3' end and those of sufficient quality (8066, 74%) were clustered into groups of sequence similarity (>95% identity), resulting in 2489 clusters.