Metabolomic fingerprinting of pig seminal plasma identifies in vivo fertility biomarkers
Mateo-Otero, Yentel (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Biologia)
Fernández-López, Pol (Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes)
Delgado-Bermúdez, Ariadna (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Biologia)
Nolis Fañanas, Pau (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Servei de Ressonància Magnètica Nuclear)
Roca Aleu, Jordi (Universidad de Murcia. Departamento de Medicina y Cirugía Animal)
Miró, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals)
Barranco, Isabel (Università di Bologna. Dipartimento Scienze Mediche Veterinarie)
Yeste Oliveras, Marc (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Biologia)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	Metabolomic approaches, which include the study of low molecular weight molecules, are an emerging -omics technology useful for identification of biomarkers. In this field, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has already been used to uncover (in) fertility biomarkers in the seminal plasma (SP) of several mammalian species. However, NMR studies profiling the porcine SP metabolome to uncover in vivo fertility biomarkers are yet to be carried out. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the putative relationship between SP-metabolites and in vivo fertility outcomes. To this end, 24 entire ejaculates (three ejaculates per boar) were collected from artificial insemination (AI)-boars throughout a year (one ejaculate every 4 months). Immediately after collection, ejaculates were centrifuged to obtain SP-samples, which were stored for subsequent metabolomic analysis by NMR spectroscopy. Fertility outcomes from 1525 inseminations were recorded over a year, including farrowing rate, litter size, stillbirths per litter and the duration of pregnancy. A total of 24 metabolites were identified and quantified in all SP-samples. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that lactate levels in SP had discriminative capacity for farrowing rate (area under the curve [AUC] = 0. 764) while carnitine (AUC = 0. 847), hypotaurine (AUC = 0. 819), sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (AUC = 0. 833), glutamate (AUC = 0. 799) and glucose (AUC = 0. 750) showed it for litter size. Similarly, citrate (AUC = 0. 743), creatine (AUC = 0. 812), phenylalanine (AUC = 0. 750), tyrosine (AUC = 0. 753) and malonate (AUC = 0. 868) levels had discriminative capacity for stillbirths per litter; and malonate (AUC = 0. 767) and fumarate (AUC = 0. 868) levels for gestation length. The assessment of selected SP-metabolites in ejaculates through NMR spectroscopy could be considered as a promising non-invasive tool to predict in vivo fertility outcomes in pigs. Moreover, supplementing AI-doses with specific metabolites should also be envisaged as a way to improve their fertility potential. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10. 1186/s40104-021-00636-5.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades AGL2017-88329-R Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades FJCI-2017-31689 Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades RYC-2014-15581 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017-SGR-1229 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2020-FI-B-00412
Note:	Altres ajuts: Fundación Séneca 19892/GERM-15
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Artificial insemination ; In vivo fertility ; Metabolomics ; NMR ; Pregnancy outcomes ; Seminal plasma
Published in:	Journal of animal science and biotechnology, Vol. 12 (november 2021) , ISSN 2049-1891

DOI: 10.1186/s40104-021-00636-5
PMID: 34772452

15 p, 2.1 MB

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