OMICS: Current and future perspectives in reproductive medicine and technology

Abstract

Many couples present fertility problems at their reproductive age, and although in the last years, the efficiency of assisted reproduction techniques has increased, these are still far from being 100% effective. A key issue in this field is the proper assessment of germ cells, embryos and endometrium quality, in order to determine the actual likelihood to succeed. Currently available analysis is mainly based on morphological features of oocytes, sperm and embryos and although these strategies have improved the results, there is an urgent need of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. The emergence of the - OMICS technologies (epigenomics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics) permitted the improvement on the knowledge in this field, by providing with a huge amount of information regarding the biological processes involved in reproductive success, thereby getting a broader view of complex biological systems with a relatively low cost and effort.

Comparative sperm protein profiling in bulls differing in fertility and identification of phosphatidylethanolamine‐binding protein 4, a potential fertility marker

“…Understanding the factors involved in maintaining bull fertility needs a systems biology approach (Tahmasbpour et al, 2014) utilizing high throughput omics technologies by focusing on spermatozoa genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics (Jodar et al, 2015;Carrell et al, 2016;Selvaraju et al, 2017) to elucidate the molecular cascades associated with the success or otherwise of conception (Egea et al, 2014;Yoon et al, 2015). Understanding the factors involved in maintaining bull fertility needs a systems biology approach (Tahmasbpour et al, 2014) utilizing high throughput omics technologies by focusing on spermatozoa genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics (Jodar et al, 2015;Carrell et al, 2016;Selvaraju et al, 2017) to elucidate the molecular cascades associated with the success or otherwise of conception (Egea et al, 2014;Yoon et al, 2015).…”

“…Predicting bull fertility is essential in the breeding industry to minimize male factor in conception failures. Understanding the factors involved in maintaining bull fertility needs a systems biology approach (Tahmasbpour et al, 2014) utilizing high throughput omics technologies by focusing on spermatozoa genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics (Jodar et al, 2015;Carrell et al, 2016;Selvaraju et al, 2017) to elucidate the molecular cascades associated with the success or otherwise of conception (Egea et al, 2014;Yoon et al, 2015). This can facilitate development of fertility marker for bull selection (Lippolis & Reinhardt, 2008;Selvaraju et al, 2017).…”

Evaluation of spermatozoal function—useful tools or just science

“…OMICS refers to a field of study, such as genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics or metabolomics (Egea, Puchalt, Escrivá, & Varghese, 2014). Omics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of pools of biological molecules that translate into the structure, function and dynamics of an organism.…”

Epigenetic alterations of CYP19A1 gene in Cumulus cells and its relevance to infertility in endometriosis

“…Cumulus cells (CCs) provide nutrients, metabolites, growth factors, amino acids, and other regulatory molecules for Oocyte. These close relationships are also required for the development of the embryo and pregnancy outcome [9][10][11]. Due to the abovementioned reasons, analyzing CC gene expression could provide information to assess the Oocyte environment and competence [12][13][14].…”