Understanding novel functional mechanisms of conceptus maternal interactions to help improve pregnancy outcome in cattle

• Processo: 17/50438-3
• Linha de fomento: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular
• Vigência: 01 de novembro de 2018 - 31 de outubro de 2021
• Área do conhecimento: Ciências Agrárias - Medicina Veterinária - Reprodução Animal
• Convênio/Acordo: BBSRC, UKRI
• Pesquisador responsável: Flávio Vieira Meirelles
• Beneficiário: Flávio Vieira Meirelles
• Instituição-sede: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga, SP, Brasil
• Assunto(s): Gado
• Publicação FAPESP: https://media.fapesp.br/bv/uploads/pdfs/fapesp_uk_XkNExrQ_32_32.pdf

Resumo

Agriculture and Food security are of critical importance if we are to feed an increasing population with reduced resources along with external pressures such as climate change. One factor that greatly affects the economic sustainability of both beef and dairy cattle is the length of time it takes for either heifers or cows to establish and maintain successful early pregnancy. Thus, increasing fertility in dairy and beef cattle can improve agriculture efficiency with a long-term decrease in agriculture impacts worldwide. Pregnancy is essential for maintaining economic viability for farmers both in terms of lactation (milk and associated products) as well as replacement animals for meet in the beef sector. A major source of pregnancy loss in cattle occurs in the first 3 weeks of pregnancy and the question of when exactly this embryo loss occurs is unknown. We do know that a small proportion of loss (10%) occurs due to fertilization failure, with relatively little late embryonic loss occurring in normal in vivo or in vitro embryos [1]. However, a significant amount of embryonic loss can be attributed to dysfunction in the communication between the embryo and the maternal uterine environment. Establishing successful early pregnancy requires successful bi-directional communication between the developing concepts (the embryo proper and its associated extra- embryonic membranes) and the uterine environment. Maternal-derived actions on the concepts are driven in the main by the hormone progesterone (P4) which govern temporal and spatial changes in the endometrial transcriptome as well as composition of the uterine fluid. These changes are specific to the morphological stages of embryo development. One important role of these endometrial-derived molecules is to promote proliferation of the concepts trophectoderm cells. (AU)