Sexing of Spermatozoa in Farm Animals: a Mini Review

Abstract

Livestock farmers always have a wish for producing young ones of desired sex. Among the several techniques available, use of sexed semen for artificial insemination is recognized as more pragmatic and easy way to pre -select the sex of the offspring. Selective use of sexed semen in breeding will not only increase the genetic progress from the daughter -dam path but would also help in producing good male germplasm from elite bulls for future breeding. Several attempts have been made, elsewhere in the globe, to develop methods that efficiently separate bovine semen into fractions containing higher concentrations of X -or Y -bearing sperm. These technologies include sex specific antibodies, centrifugation and flow cytometry. Of these attempts, the only method proven to be commercially viable is flow cytometry. However, sorting pressure, speed, electrical deviation, laser radiation all leads to membrane alteration and pre -capacitation like changes in the sorted sperm leading to reduced fertility. Despite these limitations, production of sexed semen usually followed by cryopreservation is being used commercially for cattle production. Development of the instrument for increasing the sorting rate and also purity of sorting without affecting the viability and fertility is still an active area of research. The aim of this review is to update the readers with the recent developments in sexing of spermatozoa with special reference to farm animals.All copyrights reserved to Nexus® academic publishers

Sperm DNA Integrity and Male Fertility in Farm Animals: A Review

“…In stallion spermatozoa, the DNA fragmentation index post-sorting were ∼10% higher than pre-sorting, which may be due to oxidative DNA damage (67). Factors such as high pressure and speed, during sorting, dye-induced defects, electrical deviation, changes in pH and osmolarity, etc might lead to changes to the sperm plasma membrane, trigger pre capacitation-like changes, cause protamine decondensation and alter sperm DNA quality (68).…”

The effect of protected soybean meal as a protein supplement on blood metabolites of lactating dairy cows

“…al., 2018). Spermatozoa yang mengandung kromosom Y dan X memiliki beberapa perbedaan seperti, ukuran spermatozoa Y lebih kecil, spermatozoa Y mengandung DNA yang lebih sedikit sehingga pergerakannya cepat dan spermatozoa Y mengandung H-Y antigen (Boro, et. al., 2016).…”

Five Layered Optiprep based Density Gradient Model is a Promising Model for Enrichment of Viable X Chromosome Bearing Spermatozoa in Bubalus bubalis

“…This can be achieved by effective sorting of X (female) or Y (male) chromosomebearing spermatozoa in semen. Amongst various experimental techniques for separation of X and Y sperm, (Prakash et al, 2014), flow cytometry method which is based on DNA differences poses to be a major breakthrough in reproduction technology Blondin et al (2009). This technique was developed by Johnson et al1989, at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and is the only method validated so far for sex selection before birth (Graaf et al, 2009;Prakash et al, 2014).…”

“…Amongst various experimental techniques for separation of X and Y sperm, (Prakash et al, 2014), flow cytometry method which is based on DNA differences poses to be a major breakthrough in reproduction technology Blondin et al (2009). This technique was developed by Johnson et al1989, at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and is the only method validated so far for sex selection before birth (Graaf et al, 2009;Prakash et al, 2014). But, in addition to being a costly technique, many studies have reported that sperms sexed using this technique possess reduced fertility (Seidel et al1999;Sartori et al 2004;Seidel and Schenk, 2008).…”