Developmental programming of the ovarian reserve in livestock.

Mammalian females are born with a finite number of follicles in their ovaries that is referred to as the ovarian reserve. There is a large amount of variation between females in the number of antral follicles that they are born with, but this number is positively correlated to size of the ovarian reserve, has a strong repeatability within a female, and a moderate heritability. Although the heritability is moderate, numerous external factors including health, nutrition, ambient temperature, and litter size influence the size and function of the ovarian reserve throughout life.

Dehydrogenase and oxoreductase activities of porcine placental 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase.

Dehydrogenase (cortisol to cortisone) and oxoreductase (cortisone to cortisol) activities of porcine placental 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11beta-HSD) were measured in tissue fragment cultures on day 75 of gestation. Dehydrogenase activity was over fivefold greater than oxoreductase activity (p < .001).

Cloning and characterization of 414 polymorphic porcine microsatellites.

We report the sequences, sizes, and number of alleles of 414 new porcine microsatellites that were cloned in our laboratory and 21 microsatellites derived from GenBank DNA sequences. We also confirm the usefulness of porcine microsatellite primer pairs derived from short interdispersed elements.