Interrogating the seminal fluid proteome to resolve the molecular basis of fertility in poultry

研究精液蛋白质组以解析家禽生育能力的分子基础

• 批准号: BB/V001256/1
• 负责人: Tommaso Pizzari
• 金额: $ 70.11万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FV001256%2F1
• 关键词: Interrogating; seminal; fluid; proteome; resolve

With more than 50 billion chickens reared every year for both eggs (layers) and meat (broilers), poultry is one of the largest and fastest growing food systems worldwide. Poultry already outcompetes other meat markets and by 2025 more than half of all the meat produced globally is forecasted to be chicken. In the UK, growth in the poultry sector has soared in recent years, with an estimated contribution of £3.3bn to UK GDP in 2014. According to Defra, the UK poultry meat production increased to 1.8 million tonnes in 2017, with broilers accounting for around 85%. Currently, the UK is about 75% self-sufficient in poultry meat, and poultry meat represents the only UK livestock sector capable of quickly scaling-up production to support increased self-sufficiency of the UK. Ensuring consistently high fertility rates is key for meeting the demands of this expanding market. Fertility in these flocks is notoriously variable and tends to decline as birds get older, through reproductive ageing. Poor male fertilising efficiency requires increased female exposure to males, which has additional repercussions because males are often aggressive to females, which reduces female condition, health and overall fecundity. Even small improvements in the fertility of breeding stocks have vast financial consequences; e.g. a 1% variation in fertility in broiler flocks was estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of US$ in the US market. It is becoming increasing clear that in several organisms, the proteins contained in the male seminal fluid can have a drastic influence on fertility by modulating sperm swimming velocity, sperm storage within the female reproductive tract, probability of fertilisation and female behaviour after mating including female receptivity to further matings. The advent of proteomics and the publication of a draft genome of the chicken present a unique opportunity to investigate the role of seminal fluid proteins in poultry fertility. Our recent work has characterised the seminal fluid proteome of natural ejaculates of a population of red junglefowl (the species that has given rise to the domestic chicken) and has shown that the seminal fluid proteome of these birds is complex with more than 1500 seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) identified so far, including proteins involved in various known biological functions e.g. immune responses and antibacterial defences, as well as sperm maturation and sperm motility. Our work has shown that some of these SFPs are associated with in vitro measures of sperm quality. Importantly, our work has further shown that the seminal fluid proteome undergoes rapid and marked compositional changes in response to socio-sexual factors such as the sexual familiarity of a female partner and the social dominance of a male, and longer term changes, as males age, with males that are able to retain high sperm quality in advanced age having a distinct seminal fluid proteome. In this project, we capitalise on this wealth of preliminary knowledge to develop a research programme, to identify seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) that are important in maintaining lifelong fertility in male poultry. We use the red junglefowl as benchmark experimental system that has not been influenced by domestication and artificial selection, to characterise proteomic repertoires associated with rapid responses to socio-sexual conditions (objective 1) and reproductive ageing (obj. 2), and identify SFP signatures causally linked to fertility. We then confirm the role of seminal fluid in driving variation in fertility (obj. 3), and validate the commercial relevance and applicability of these findings by investigating patterns of intra- and inter-male variation in fertility-linked SFPs in commercial meat-production domestic chicken lines (broiler breeders, obj. 4). Collectively, these results will help us identify proteins linked to poultry fertility, which will inform new strategies to improve fertility in commercial stocks.

每年有超过500亿只鸡饲养，用于蛋（蛋鸡）和肉（肉鸡），家禽是全球最大和增长最快的食品系统之一。家禽已经超过其他肉类市场，预计到2025年，全球生产的肉类中有一半以上是鸡肉。在英国，家禽业近年来增长迅速，2014年对英国GDP的贡献估计为33亿英镑。根据Defra的数据，2017年英国禽肉产量增加到180万吨，其中肉鸡约占85%。目前，英国约有75%的禽肉自给自足，禽肉是英国唯一能够快速扩大生产规模以支持英国自给自足的畜牧业。确保持续的高生育率是满足这一不断扩大的市场需求的关键。众所周知，这些鸟群的繁殖力是可变的，并且随着鸟类年龄的增长，通过生殖老化而趋于下降。雄性受精效率差需要增加雌性与雄性的接触，这会产生额外的影响，因为雄性往往对雌性具有攻击性，这会降低雌性的状况，健康和整体繁殖力。即使是种猪繁殖力的微小改善也会产生巨大的经济后果;例如，在美国市场上，肉鸡群繁殖力的1%变化估计价值数亿美元。 越来越清楚的是，在一些生物体中，雄性精液中所含的蛋白质可以通过调节精子游泳速度、精子在雌性生殖道内的储存、受精的可能性和交配后的雌性行为（包括雌性对进一步交配的接受性）对生育力产生显著影响。蛋白质组学的出现和鸡基因组草图的发表为研究精液蛋白在家禽生育中的作用提供了一个独特的机会。我们最近的工作已经确定了红原鸡自然射精的精液蛋白质组的特征（已经产生家鸡的物种），并且已经表明这些鸟类的精液蛋白质组是复杂的，迄今为止鉴定出超过1500种精液蛋白质（SFP），包括涉及各种已知生物功能的蛋白质，例如免疫应答和抗菌防御，以及精子成熟和精子活力。我们的工作表明，这些SFP中的一些与精子质量的体外测量有关。重要的是，我们的工作进一步表明，精液蛋白质组经历了快速和显着的组成变化，以响应社会性因素，如女性伴侣的性熟悉和男性的社会主导地位，以及长期的变化，随着男性年龄的增长，男性能够在高龄时保持高精子质量，具有独特的精液蛋白质组。在这个项目中，我们利用这些丰富的初步知识来开发一个研究计划，以确定精液蛋白（SFP），这是重要的，在维持终身生育力的男性家禽。 我们使用红原鸡作为基准实验系统，没有受到驯化和人工选择的影响，以鉴定与社会性条件（目标1）和生殖老化（目标2）的快速反应相关的蛋白质组库，并确定SFP签名与生育力的因果关系。然后，我们确认了精液在驱动生育力变异中的作用（物镜，3），并通过调查商业化产肉家鸡品系（肉鸡育种者，物镜，4）中与生育力相关的SFP的雄性内和雄性间变异模式，验证了这些发现的商业相关性和适用性。总的来说，这些结果将帮助我们确定与家禽生育力相关的蛋白质，这将为提高商业种群生育力的新策略提供信息。

项目成果

Jumping out of trouble: Evidence for a cognitive map in guppies ( Poecilia reticulata )

摆脱困境：孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）认知图的证据

• DOI: 10.1101/2022.03.30.486400
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: De Waele H

A sex skew in life-history research: the problem of missing males.

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1117
• 发表时间: 2022-07-27
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Archer, C. Ruth;Paniw, Maria;Vega-Trejo, Regina;Sepil, Irem
• 通讯作者: Sepil, Irem

Sex-specific inbreeding depression: A meta-analysis.

• DOI: 10.1111/ele.13961
• 发表时间: 2022-04
• 期刊: ECOLOGY LETTERS
• 影响因子: 8.8
• 作者: Vega-Trejo, Regina;Boer, Raissa A.;Fitzpatrick, John L.;Kotrschal, Alexander
• 通讯作者: Kotrschal, Alexander

Archer_AdditionalMethods_Tables_Figures_ESM from A sex skew in life-history research: the problem of missing males

Archer_AdditionalMethods_Tables_Figures_ESM 来自生活史研究中的性别偏差：男性缺失的问题

• DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.20325429
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Archer C

Jumping out of trouble: evidence for a cognitive map in guppies (Poecilia reticulata).

• DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arac085
• 发表时间: 2022-11
• 期刊: Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology