Defining spermatozoa cell surface proteome for improved breeding

人们普遍认识到，男性不育是哺乳动物生殖的一个主要问题，反过来又可能危及人类活动的许多社会经济领域。在此背景下，提高饲养能力的全球压力加强了为改进动物育种以及牲畜的大小和质量而进行的持续努力。因此，有必要更好地描述受精过程的组成部分，以便将其与精子受精能力及其成功繁殖努力的潜力联系起来。令人惊讶的是，目前精子表面相对较少的蛋白质已被最终确定为对成功繁殖起明确作用或显示关键重要性。在这个应用中，我们将利用新的强大的分子方法来鉴定新鲜射精牛精子膜中的已知和新的成分或与之相关的成分。这种鉴定最终将应用于育种行业，通过确定精液受精潜力，使人们能够选择更高质量的精子。与此同时，除了更好地理解这一生物学过程外，我们的目标也是确定对精子冷冻保存（冷藏）过程有积极和消极影响的蛋白质，考虑到当今大多数育种都是通过使用冷冻精子进行人工授精来完成的，这一领域具有重要的经济意义。为此，我们将重点关注经济上重要的物种，如猪、羊、马或牛。总而言之，实现这些目标有助于增加知识，从而直接有利于牛的繁殖和饲养。

It is well recognized that male infertility represents a major problem for mammalian reproduction and, in turn, can endanger numerous socio-economic areas of human activities. In this context, the sustained efforts towards improving animal breeding and both the size and quality of our livestock are reinforced by the global pressure on increasing feeding capacities. Thus, it is essential that a better description of the components of the fertilization process be acquired so as to relate it to the spermatozoa fertilization capacities and to its potential for successful breeding endeavors. Surprisingly, relatively few proteins at the surface of the spermatozoa have nowadays been conclusively identified as playing a definite role or displaying a pivotal importance for successful reproduction. In this application, we will take advantage of new powerful molecular approaches to identify known and novel components in or associated with the membrane of freshly ejaculated bovine spermatozoa. This identification ultimately will be applied in the breeding industry through allowing the determination of the semen fertilization potential enabling one to select higher quality sperm. Concomitantly, in addition to better understanding this biological process, it is also our goal to identify proteins positively and negatively contributing to the process of sperm cryopreservation (cold storage), an area of great economic importance considering that, nowadays, most breeding is accomplished through artificial insemination using frozen spermatozoa. To do this, we will focus on economically important species such pig, sheep, horse or bovine species. Taken together, reaching these objectives could contribute to an increased knowledge which could directly benefit breeding and rearing of cattle.