Dataset Information

The vaginal and fecal microbiomes are related to pregnancy status in beef heifers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The greatest impact on profitability of a commercial beef operation is reproduction. However, in beef heifers, little is known about the vaginal and fecal microbiota with respect to their relationship with fertility. To this end, we followed heifers through gestation to examine the dynamics of vaginal and fecal microbial composition throughout pregnancy.

Results

Heifers were exposed to an estrus synchronization protocol, observed over a 12-day period, artificially inseminated 12?h to 18?h after observed estrus, and subsequently exposed to bulls for a 50-day breeding season. Vaginal samples were taken at pre-breeding (n?=?72), during the first (n?=?72), and second trimester (n?=?72) for all individuals, and third trimester for individuals with confirmed pregnancies (n?=?56). Fecal samples were taken at pre-breeding (n?=?32) and during the first trimester (n?=?32), including bred and open individuals. Next generation sequencing of the V4 region of the16S rRNA gene via the Illumina MiSeq platform was applied to all samples. Shannon indices and the number of observed bacterial features were the same in fecal samples. However, significant differences in vaginal microbiome diversity between gestation stages were observed. No differences in beta-diversity were detected in vaginal or fecal samples regarding pregnancy status, but such differences were seen with fecal microbiome over time. Random Forest was developed to identify predictors of pregnancy status in vaginal (e.g., Histophilus, Clostridiaceae, Campylobacter) and fecal (e.g., Bacteroidales, Dorea) samples.

Conclusions

Our study shows that bovine vaginal and fecal microbiome could be used as biomarkers of bovine reproduction. Further experiments are needed to validate these biomarkers and to examine their roles in a female's ability to establish pregnancy.

SUBMITTER: Deng F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6909518 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

The vaginal and fecal microbiomes are related to pregnancy status in beef heifers.

Deng Feilong F McClure Maryanna M Rorie Rick R Wang Xiaofan X Chai Jianmin J Wei Xiaoyuan X Lai Songjia S Zhao Jiangchao J

Journal of animal science and biotechnology 20191213

<h4>Background</h4>The greatest impact on profitability of a commercial beef operation is reproduction. However, in beef heifers, little is known about the vaginal and fecal microbiota with respect to their relationship with fertility. To this end, we followed heifers through gestation to examine the dynamics of vaginal and fecal microbial composition throughout pregnancy.<h4>Results</h4>Heifers were exposed to an estrus synchronization protocol, observed over a 12-day period, artificially insem ...[more]

PMID: 31857897

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Project description:Infertility and subfertility represent major problems in domestic animals and humans, and the majority of embryonic loss occurs during the first month of gestation that involves pregnancy recognition and conceptus implantation. The critical genes and physiological pathways in the endometrium that mediate pregnancy establishment and success are not well understood. In study one, predominantly Angus heifers were classified based on fertility using serial embryo transfer to select animals with intrinsic differences in pregnancy loss. In each of the four rounds, a single in vitro-produced, high-quality embryo was transferred into heifers on Day 7 postestrus and pregnancy was determined on Days 28 and 42 by ultrasound and then terminated. Heifers were classified based on pregnancy success as high fertile (HF), subfertile (SF), or infertile (IF). In study two, fertility-classified heifers were resynchronized and bred with semen from a single high-fertility bull. Blood samples were collected every other day from Days 0 to 36 postmating. Pregnancy rate was determined on Day 28 by ultrasound and was higher in HF (70.4%) than in heifers with low fertility (36.8%; SF and IF). Progesterone concentrations in serum during the first 20 days postestrus were not different in nonpregnant heifers and also not different in pregnant heifers among fertility groups. In study three, a single in vivo-produced embryo was transferred into fertility-classified heifers on Day 7 postestrus. The uteri were flushed on Day 14 to recover embryos, and endometrial biopsies were obtained from the ipsilateral uterine horn. Embryo recovery rate and conceptus length and area were not different among the heifer groups. RNA was sequenced from the Day 14 endometrial biopsies of pregnant HF, SF, and IF heifers (n = 5 per group) and analyzed by edgeR-robust analysis. There were 26 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the HF compared to SF endometrium, 12 DEGs for SF compared to IF endometrium, and three DEGs between the HF and IF endometrium. Several of the DEG-encoded proteins are involved in immune responses and are expressed in B cells. Results indicate that preimplantation conceptus survival and growth to Day 14 is not compromised in SF and IF heifers. Thus, the observed difference in capacity for pregnancy success in these fertility-classified heifers is manifest between Days 14 and 28 when pregnancy recognition signaling and conceptus elongation and implantation must occur for the establishment of pregnancy.

Project description:Infertility and subfertility represent major problems in domestic animals and humans, and the majority of embryonic loss occurs during the first month of gestation that involves pregnancy recognition and conceptus implantation. The critical genes and physiological pathways in the endometrium that mediate pregnancy establishment and success are not well understood. In Study One, 270 predominantly Angus heifers were classified based on fertility using four rounds of serial embryo transfer (ET) to select animals with intrinsic differences in pregnancy loss. In each round, a single in vitro-produced high-quality embryo was transferred into heifers on day 7 post-estrus and pregnancy was determined on days 28 and 42 by ultrasound and then terminated. Heifers were classified based on pregnancy success as high fertile (HF), subfertile (SF), or infertile (IF). In Study Two, fertility-classified heifers were resynchronized and bred with semen from a single high fertility bull. Blood samples were collected every other day from days 0 to 36 post-mating. Pregnancy rate was determined on day 28 by ultrasound and tended to be higher in HF (70.4%) and SF (46.7%) than IF (0%) heifers. Progesterone concentrations in serum during the first 20 days post-estrus were not different in non-pregnant heifers and also not different in pregnant heifers among fertility groups. In Study Three, a single in vivo-produced embryo was transferred into fertility-classified heifers on day 7 post-estrus. The uteri were flushed on day 14 to recover embryos, and endometrial biopsies were obtained from the ipsilateral uterine horn. Embryo recovery rate and conceptus length and area were not different among the heifer groups. RNA was sequenced from the day 14 endometrial biopsies of pregnant HF, SF and IF heifers (n=5 per group) and analyzed by edgeR robust analysis. There were 26 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in the HF compared to SF endometrium, 12 DEG for SF compared to IF endometrium, and 3 DEG between the HF and IF endometrium. Many of the DEG encoded proteins involved in immune responses and are expressed in B cells. Results indicate that pre-implantation conceptus survival and growth to day 14 is not compromised in SF and IF heifers. Thus, the observed difference in capacity for pregnancy success in these fertility-classified heifers is manifest between days 14 and 28 when pregnancy recognition signaling and conceptus implantation must occur for the establishment of pregnancy.

Project description:Infertility and subfertility represent major problems in domestic animals and humans, and the majority of embryonic loss occurs during the first month of gestation that involves pregnancy recognition and conceptus implantation. The critical genes and physiological pathways in the endometrium that mediate pregnancy establishment and success are not well understood. In Study One, 270 predominantly Angus heifers were classified based on fertility using four rounds of serial embryo transfer (ET) to select animals with intrinsic differences in pregnancy loss. In each round, a single in vitro-produced high-quality embryo was transferred into heifers on day 7 post-estrus and pregnancy was determined on days 28 and 42 by ultrasound and then terminated. Heifers were classified based on pregnancy success as high fertile (HF), subfertile (SF), or infertile (IF). In Study Two, fertility-classified heifers were resynchronized and bred with semen from a single high fertility bull. Blood samples were collected every other day from days 0 to 36 post-mating. Pregnancy rate was determined on day 28 by ultrasound and tended to be higher in HF (70.4%) and SF (46.7%) than IF (0%) heifers. Progesterone concentrations in serum during the first 20 days post-estrus were not different in non-pregnant heifers and also not different in pregnant heifers among fertility groups. In Study Three, a single in vivo-produced embryo was transferred into fertility-classified heifers on day 7 post-estrus. The uteri were flushed on day 14 to recover embryos, and endometrial biopsies were obtained from the ipsilateral uterine horn. Embryo recovery rate and conceptus length and area were not different among the heifer groups. RNA was sequenced from the day 14 endometrial biopsies of pregnant HF, SF and IF heifers (n=5 per group) and analyzed by edgeR robust analysis. There were 26 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in the HF compared to SF endometrium, 12 DEG for SF compared to IF endometrium, and 3 DEG between the HF and IF endometrium. Many of the DEG encoded proteins involved in immune responses and are expressed in B cells. Results indicate that pre-implantation conceptus survival and growth to day 14 is not compromised in SF and IF heifers. Thus, the observed difference in capacity for pregnancy success in these fertility-classified heifers is manifest between days 14 and 28 when pregnancy recognition signaling and conceptus implantation must occur for the establishment of pregnancy. Endometrial biopsies were subjected to RNA sequencing from high fertile (HF; n=5), subfertile (SF; n=5) and infertile (IF; n=5) classified heifers on day 14 of pregnancy.

Project description:BackgroundRuminants harbor a complex microbial community within their gastrointestinal tract, which plays major roles in their health and physiology. Brazil is one of the largest producers of beef in the world and more than 90% of the beef cattle herds are composed of pure and crossbred Nelore (Bos indicus). Despite its importance to the Brazilian economy and human feeding, few studies have characterized the Nelore microbiome. Therefore, using shotgun metagenomics, we investigated the impact of diet on the composition and functionality of the Nelore microbiome, and explored the associations between specific microbial taxa and their functionality with feed efficiency and methane emission.ResultsThe ruminal microbiome exhibited significantly higher microbial diversity, distinctive taxonomic profile and variations in microbial functionality compared to the fecal microbiome, highlighting the distinct contributions of the microbiomes of these environments. Animals subjected to different dietary treatments exhibited significant differences in their microbiomes' archaeal diversity and in the abundance of 89 genera, as well as in the functions associated with the metabolism of components of each diet. Moreover, depending on the diet, feed-efficient animals and low methane emitters displayed higher microbial diversity in their fecal microbiome. Multiple genera were associated with an increase or decrease of the phenotypes. Upon analyzing the functions attributed to these taxa, we observed significant differences on the ruminal taxa associated with feed efficient and inefficient cattle. The ruminal taxa that characterized feed efficient cattle stood out for having significantly more functions related to carbohydrate metabolism, such as monosaccharides, di-/oligosaccharides and amino acids. The taxa associated with methane emission had functions associated with methanogenesis and the production of substrates that may influence methane production, such as hydrogen and formate.ConclusionOur findings highlight the significant role of diet in shaping Nelore microbiomes and how its composition and functionality may affect production traits such as feed efficiency and methane emission. These insights provide valuable support for the implementation of novel feeding and biotechnological strategies.

Project description:The vaginal microbiota plays an important role in the health of dairy cattle, and it could be manipulated for the prevention and treatment of reproduction-related infections. The present study profiles and compares the vaginal microbiota of healthy dairy heifers during the estrous cycle focusing the results in follicular (estrus) and luteal (diestrus) phases using 16S rRNA sequencing of the V3-V4 hypervariable region. Twenty 13-16-months-old virgin dairy heifers from a single farm were included in this study. Vaginal swabs and blood samples were obtained during estrus (6-8 h before artificial insemination) and diestrus (14 days after insemination). Estrus was evaluated by an activity monitoring system and confirmed with plasma progesterone immunoassay. Results showed that the taxonomic composition of the vaginal microbiota was different during the follicular and luteal phases. At the phylum level, the most abundant bacterial phyla were Tenericutes, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes which comprised more than 75% of the vaginal microbiota composition. The next more abundant phyla, in order of decreasing abundance, were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Fusobacteria, Epsilonbacteraeota, and Patescibacteria. Together with Tenericutes, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes represented more than 96% of the bacterial composition. Ureaplasma, Histophilus, f_Corynebacteriaceae, Porphyromonas, Mycoplasma, Ruminococcaceae UCG-005, were the most abundant genera or families. The results also showed that the vaginal microbiota of dairy heifers was non-lactobacillus dominant. The genus Lactobacillus was always found at a low relative abundance during the estrous cycle being more abundant in the follicular than in the luteal phase. Despite more research is needed to explore the potential use of native vaginal microbiota members as probiotics in dairy heifers, this study represents an important step forward. Understanding how the microbiota behaves in healthy heifers will help to identify vaginal dysbiosis related to disease.

Dataset Information

The vaginal and fecal microbiomes are related to pregnancy status in beef heifers.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

The vaginal and fecal microbiomes are related to pregnancy status in beef heifers.

Similar Datasets

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