Characterization of the porcine maternal-embryonic interface and its role in embryonic development.

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Prenatal mortality is a common and significant problem in all mammalian species. The pig is an excellent animal model because between 25-30% of developing embryos are lost prior to or during implantation. The exact mechanisms of embryonic death are poorly understood, but are hypothesized to be due to malfunction or miscommunication between the maternal environment and embryo. Although the oviduct and uterus play a central role in early embryonic development, the actual oviductal and uterine microenvironments that pig embryos are exposed are essentially uncharacterized. Despite the fact that the embryo's environment has a critical impact on prenatal development and the long-term health of the animal, it is unclear how the environment alters the genes expressed by an embryo and produces remarkable effects on the offspring. Until recently, this intellectual bottleneck has been caused primarily by the limited amount of material that can be gathered from these minute embryonic tissues and the lack of appropriate research techniques to efficiently study these extremely specialized cell types at a molecular level. However, application of recent advances in genomic and proteomic technologies will allow for analysis of the signaling between an embryo and its maternal environment before implantation. These analyses will advance our fundamental understanding of the critical steps involved in the development of a viable embryo, and provide insight into how the microenvironment of the embryo affects these processes. This research will result in the identification of a multitude of candidate genes and gene products which are involved in the maternal-embryo interactions of the pig and will have implications for basic science, maternal management and biotechnology. This knowledge will be beneficial to Canada as it will be used to improve the reproductive efficiency of economically important species, such as swine, and will also address how maternal embryo communication can influence human health.