Identification of serum protein markers for early diagnosis of pregnancy in buffalo

Improper or delayed pregnancy diagnosis has significant impact over animal production, particularly in buffaloes which inherently suffer from several reproductive inefficiencies. Thus the present study has undertaken to identify serum protein markers pertaining to early pregnancy diagnosis in buffaloes. Serum samples were collected from 10 pregnant Murrah Buffalo heifers at weekly intervals from days 0‐35 post‐artificial insemination and from 12 inseminated non‐pregnant cyclic buffalo heifers on days 0, 7, 14 and 21. Two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis and densitometric analysis revealed the presence of five protein spots showing average density fold change of ≥4 during early pregnancy. Mass spectrometry analysis identified these up‐regulated proteins as anti‐testosterone antibody light chain, apolipoprotein A‐II precursor, serum amyloid A, cytokeratin type II, component IV isoform 1, which are have established roles in embryogenesis, but over‐expression of the fifth identified protein immunoglobulin lambda light chain in pregnancy has been elucidated as a novel finding in the current study. Further, with bioinformatics analysis, potential antigenic B‐cell epitopes were predicted for all these five proteins. An antibody cocktail‐based approach involving antibodies against all these five up‐regulated entire proteins or their epitopes could be developed for early detection of pregnancy in buffaloes. © 2016 Japanese Society of Animal Science     

Cover Image,Volume 73, Issue 10

The cover image, by Jia‐Wei Tay et al., is based on the Research Article Development of an alginate hydrogel to deliver aqueous bait for pest ant management, DOI: 10.1002/ps.4616 .

     

Comparative diagnostic evaluation of OMP31 gene based TaqMan® real-time PCR assay with visual LAMP assay and indirect ELISA for caprine brucellosis

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Brucellosis is one of the leading causes of abortion in domestic animals that imposes costs on both economy and society. The disease is highly zoonotic and...     

Spectrophotometric determination of ferric dimethyldithiocarbamate (ferbam) in formulations,grain and apples using 1, 10-phenanthroline

A procedure has been developed for the determination of ferbam (ferric dimethyldithiocarbamate) by converting it into ferbam-phenanthroline complex, which is dissolved in acetone + water (1 + 1 by volume), and the absorbance measured at 490 nm against a reagent blank. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range 0–8–20-0 mg litre^?1 in the final solution. The method is sensitive, selective and can be used for the direct determination of ferbam in commercial samples, in mixtures with various other dithiocarbamates (ziram, zineb, maneb, etc.) and from grains (rice and wheat) and apples. The limit of determination from foodstuffs is 0–4 mg kg^?1.     

Synthesis and pesticidal activity of some quinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives

A number of quinazolin-4(3H)-one carbothioamides, pyrazoles, pyrazolones and tetrazole derivatives have been synthesised by the reaction of 2-hydrazino-3-(4-substituted phenyl)-quinazolin-4(3H)-ones with the appropriate aryl isothiocyanate, acetyl acetone, ethylacetoacetate and nitrous acid. All the compounds were tested in vitro for antibacterial, insecticidal and antifungal activity and found to have some activity.     

Effect of recombinant and native buffalo OVGP1 on sperm functions and in vitro embryo development: a comparative study

Background: An oviduct-specific glycoprotein, OVGP1, is synthesized and secreted by non-ciliated epithelial cells of the mammalian oviduct which provides an essential milieu for reproductive functions. The present study reports the effects of recombinant buffalo OVGP1 that lacks post-translational modifications, and native Buffalo OVGP1 isolated from oviductal tissue, on frozen-thawed sperm functions and in vitro embryo development.Results: The proportion of viable sperms was greater(P 0.05) in the recombinant OVGP1-treated group compared to the native OVGP1-treated group at 2 h, 3 h, and 4 h of incubation. The proportion of motile sperms at3 h and 4 h of incubation; and membrane-intact sperms at 4 h was greater(P 0.05) in the native OVGP1-treated group compared to the control and recombinant OVGP1-treated groups. The proportion of capacitated and acrosome-reacted sperms was greater(P 0.05) in the native OVGP1-treated group compared to the recombinant OVGP1 group at 4 h. The rates of cleavage of embryos and their development to the blastocyst stage were greater(P 0.05) in the presence of either native or recombinant OVGP1 in comparison to control at 10 μg/mL concentration as compared to 5 or 20 μg/mL.Conclusions: The study suggests that both native and recombinant OVGP1 impart a positive effect on various sperm features and in vitro embryo development. However, native OVGP1 was found to have a more pronounced effect in comparison to recombinant non-glycosylated OVGP1 on various sperm functions except viability. Hence,our current findings infer that glycosylation of OVGP1 might be essential in sustaining the sperm functions but not the in vitro embryo development.