Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief minutes of the W3171 Technical Committee Meeting

University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK

May 31 – June 1, 2018

May 31, 2018

The meeting, held in Room 501 of the Akasofu Building (International Artic Research Center) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was called to order at 8:15 am on May 31^st by Committee Chair, Brett White (Nebraska).  In attendance were Charles Rosenkrans (Arkansas), Anna Denicol (California), Jerry Bouma (Colorado), Cindy Tian (Connecticut), Ken Bondioli (Louisiana), Carol Keefer (Maryland), Brett White (Nebraska), Clay Isom (Utah), Irina Polejaeva (Utah) and Milan Shipka (Administrative Advisor).

The meeting agenda was reviewed and approved.  Charles Rosenkrans (Arkansas) made a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting as read and Carol Keefer (Maryland) seconded the motion.  The minutes were unanimously approved.  W3171 Administrator Advisor, Milan Shipka, welcomed committee members to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and provided some historical perspectives regarding the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  He also provided guidance for submission of the project's report of accomplishments, impacts and publications.  Our National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) representative, Mark Mirando, joined the meeting via teleconference.  Dr. Mirando provided updates from NIFA on news and personnel, the budget for the 2018 fiscal year, competitive programs, outcomes for Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Foundational Programs in fiscal year 2017 and interagency funding opportunities.

Station reports were presented and discussed for Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland and Nebraska.  In addition, Charles Rosenkrans (Arkansas) initiated a discussion regarding an integrated grant proposal (Influence of sexed semen on profitability of livestock producers) previously prepared by members of the W3171 Technical Committee.  Interest in submitting a NIFA integrated proposal to the AFRI Sustainable Agricultural Systems Request for Applications was gauged.  Consensus of the committee was that the letter of intent deadline (6/27/2018) was too near for the current grant cycle, however, additional discussion on preparing a proposal in 2019 would take place via email. 

At 3:30 pm, the meeting was adjourned for the day.  The committee was provided a tour of the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station.  An interesting overview of the research being performed on muskox and reindeer was provided by Dr. Jan Rowell.  Following the tour, committee members enjoyed dinner at the Alaska Salmon Bake in Pioneer Park.

June 1, 2018

The committee resumed its annual meeting at 8:30 am.  We began with our final report from the Utah station.  During the business meeting, Anna Denicol (California) was nominated to serve as Secretary for the W3171 Technical Committee in 2018.  Charles Rosenkrans (Arkansas) made a motion to approve the nomination and Ken Bondioli (Louisiana) seconded the motion.  The motion to elect Anna Denicol (California) as Secretary was unanimously approved.  Kiho Lee (Virginia) will serve as Chair for the upcoming year.  The 2019 annual meeting of the W3171 Technical Committee will be held in conjunction with the 2019 International Embryo Technology Society Conference at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. The meeting will begin at 8 am on Thursday, January 24, 2019.  

The rewrite for the W3171 committee is due by January 15, 2019.  A writing committee was established.  Brett White (Nebraska) and Ken Bondioli (Louisiana) agreed to serve as Chair and Co-Chair of the committee, respectively.  Jerry Bouma (Colorado) and Quinton Winger (Colorado) also agreed to serve on the committee.  In regard to development of the outline, Cindy Tian (Connecticut) will oversee the review of Objective 1 with assistance from Clay Isom (Utah).  Irina Polejaeva (Utah) will manage the review of Objective 2 with assistance from Kiho Lee (Virginia).  To assist with the rewrite, monthly online meetings and establishing a Google document were recommended.

The committee thanked our Administrative Advisor, Milan Shipka, for graciously hosting the meeting and the wonderful hospitality.  The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 pm.

Respectively Submitted,

Brett White – Acting Secretary

W3171 Technical Committee

Objective 1

• The vaginal and fecal microbiota of beef heifers was characterized to explore a relationship between bacterial signatures and fertility.
• The roles of OCT4 and KDM6B during bovine early embryogenesis were determined.
• Preliminary characterization of bovine oogonial stem cells was accomplished.
• Systematically compared dosage compensation of the X chromosome in ovine fetuses developed under different nutrition statuses.
• RNA sequencing data comparing oocytes collected by ovum pick up (OPU) or from slaughterhouse ovaries identified differentially expressed genes in both the germinal vesicle and metaphase II stages that can be investigated as molecular markers of developmental competence.
• Analysis of embryo metabolism by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) demonstrated that substrate balance in the media has a profound influence on pathway activities (e.g., glycolysis) as well as the extent that media substrates are metabolized.
• CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing was utilized to knockout pig conceptus IL1B2 gene expression and the secretion of IL1B2 during the time of conceptus elongation.
• Histological evaluation of testicular tissue revealed that testes of GnRH-II receptor knockdown males had fewer, but larger Leydig cells and seminiferous tubules than littermate control testes.

Objective 2

• Preparation of sex-sorted semen for in vitro fertilization (IVF) was optimized for maximal performance in cattle.
• Bovine embryonic stem cells were derived with high efficiency.
• Targeting and genome editing constructs for KDM1A were designed, tested in vitro, and used to study their function within the placenta in vivo.
• Different specific shRNA target constructs were designed to knockdown LIN28A and LIN28B and have been tested in vitro.
• Determined the roles of Akt3 in embryonic stem cell survival and proliferation.
• Determined that there is no positive effect of Vitamin K or B-12 on bone formation of adipose stem cells in vitro.
• Exposure of immature and mature bovine oocytes to DMSO- and glycerol-based vitrification solutions, as well as vitrification with these solutions, resulted in minor or no change in epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation and histone acetylation.
• Through using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system, we disrupted up to three genes simultaneously at near 100% efficiency in vitro and successfully knocked out expression of conceptus-specific genes.

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Hughes, J.R., and T. Berger.  Regulation of apical blebbing in the porcine epididymis. J. Anat. 232:515-522.

Lents, C.L., J.F. Thorson, A.T. Desaulniers, and B.R. White.  2017.  RFamide-related peptide 3 and gonadotropin-releasing hormone-II are autocrine-paracrine regulators of testicular function in the boar. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 84:994-1003.

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