Publications by authors named "William Vincent Holt"
Article Synopsis
- Mitigating threats to biodiversity remains challenging despite international efforts like the UNFCCC and CBD, prompting scientists to seek effective solutions.
- One promising approach involves biobank programs that preserve germplasm from endangered species using assisted reproductive technologies to enhance their survival.
- However, variations in reproductive behaviors among species and potential impacts of environmental conditions on embryonic development suggest that current preservation methods may need reevaluation and adaptation.
Article Synopsis
- Seahorse males undergo pregnancy, a unique phenomenon in the Syngnathidae family, where environmental factors can significantly affect embryo development.
- A study investigated the impact of a polyunsaturated fatty acid-deficient diet on male seahorses and found that timing of diet alteration influenced offspring size, gene expression, and snout length.
- Although these dietary changes did not affect newborn survival rates, they could impact offspring fitness in terms of predation and resource availability, highlighting the importance of paternal nutrition in male pregnancy.
There is increasing realisation that human health status in adulthood depends critically upon environmental conditions pertaining around the time of conception and during pregnancy. Poor maternal diet or adverse environmental conditions around the periconception period somehow induces the resultant embryo to adapt predictively in order to survive this level of stress for the whole of its life. However, if there is a mismatch between expectation and reality, where the conditions during later life are better than expected, things go wrong and the adult suffers a range of illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sex allocation of offspring in mammals is usually considered as a matter of chance, being dependent on whether an X- or a Y-chromosome-bearing spermatozoon reaches the oocyte first. Here we investigated the alternative possibility, namely that the oviducts can recognise X- and Y- spermatozoa, and may thus be able to bias the offspring sex ratio.
Results: By introducing X- or Y-sperm populations into the two separate oviducts of single female pigs using bilateral laparoscopic insemination we found that the spermatozoa did indeed elicit sex-specific transcriptomic responses.