Interdisciplinary Reproductionand Health Group (IRHG)

The picture above shows the faculty in the Department of Animal Hus-bandry at the University of Missouri in either 1928 or 1929. This picture has historical significance for the study of reproduction in farm animals. In the center of the first row is Frederick Mumford, who was the first head of the Department. He was also an animal breeder who had a graduate training program. One of his PhD students was Fred McKenzie who is pictured in the front row to the far right. Fred McKenzie was a faculty member at this time and he is widely considered to be the father of reproductive physiolo-gy in livestock species in the USA. Lester E. Casida, a PhD student, is also pictured at the far left in the back row. L.E. Casida was Fred McKenzie’s first PhD student and he worked on the estrous cycle of the ewe for his disserta-tion project. After completing his PhD, Casida joined the faculty at the Uni-versity of Wisconsin where he had a distinguished career as a researcher and graduate mentor studying reproductive physiology in farm animals.

Fred McKenzie – Pioneer in Reproductive Biology at MU

Figure 1. Picture of the faculty of the Department of Animal Husbandry at the University of Missouri taken in 1928 or 1929. Front row (left to right) - Jim Burch, Jim Foster, Frederick B. Mumford, EA Trow-bridge and Fred F. McKenzie; Middle row (left to right) – L.A. Weaver, T.A. Ewing, A.G. Hogan and D. Chittenden; Back row (left to right) L.E. Casida (PhD student), H. Garlock, H. Moffett and J.E. Comfort.

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by Dr. Mike Smith

DNA Helix(Top above) Mouse blastocysts - intermedi-ate filament labeling. Picture provided by Peter Sutovsky.(Center above) Maternal Recognition of Preg-nancy logo. Picture provided by Rodney Geisert.(Bottom Above) Immunophilin labeling in boar sperm. Picture provided by Peter Sutovsky.

Fertile Minds NewsletterVol. 1, Issue 1

When Fred McKenzie began his research program in 1923 there was little known about reproduction in live-stock species. His research philosophy was to investigate the basic biological mechanisms before trying to manipu-late the reproductive system. He investigated the estrous cycle of the ewe and when he published one of his early papers (Some observations on the estrous cycle of the

Fred McKenzie – Pioneer in Reproductive Biology at MU

sheep) he could only find one other paper to reference. McKenzie also pioneered semen collection, semen extension, and transportation. Fred McKenzie was also an effective graduate student mentor who stimulated hard work, curiosity, and a devotion to science among his trainees. He insisted they adhere to the scientific method and critically analyze their results.

Feature Articlescontinued from page 1

Faculty Spotlight Dr. Michal Zigo

Dr. Michal Zigo is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Peter Sutovsky at the Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri. Michal got his PhD from the Institute of Biotechnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech

Republic and Charles University in Prague, Czech Repub-lic; under the supervision of Drs. Pavla Postlerova and Vera Jonakova where his focus was on primary binding of a spermatozoon to vitelline coat of the mammalian oocyte – zona pellucida. His current research focus is on the role of ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) in sperm capacitation, aiming to exploit this knowledge to devise new strategies for modulating sperm UPS during live-stock semen processing and storage. Relevant to human reproductive health, diagnostics of male infertility can be improved by exploiting the correlation between sperm proteasome-associated enzymatic activities and fertility in men. New proteasome-modulating protocols and culture media can be developed to improve sperm capacitation, intrauterine insemination and fertilization in vitro for the purpose of human infertility treatment. Ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) plays important role in protein degradation and turnover in all living organisms. Protein ubiquitination is a stable, reversible posttranslational modification of target proteins by co-valent ligation of the small chaperone protein ubiquitin. In a well characterized enzymatic cascade, the ubiqui-tin-substrate conjugation and substrate recycling requires the participation of ubiquitin activating (E1), conjugat-

ing (E2), ligating (E3) and deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). Linear polyubiquitin chain is recognized by 26S proteasome, a multicatalytic protease with specific affini-ty for ubiquitin-tagged proteins that degrades polyubi-quinated proteins to small peptides. Using a pig model for his experiments, Michal demonstrated differential protein accumulation during in vitro capacitation of boar spermatozoa with prote-asomal inhibition compared to non-inhibited, suggest-ing for potential candidates for UPS regulation during the sperm capacitation. Using the GFP-proteasome

FIG.1. The GFPR boar (A) allows for rapid isolation of green fluorescent sperm-acrosomal proteasomes (B) and proteasome interacting proteins (C) with minimal loss of enzymatic activity (details in Miles et al., PNAS 110:6334-9). (D) Typical laddering of ubiquitinated isoforms of biotin-la-beled mutant ubiquitin UBB+1 after incubation with boar acrosomal extract provided first evidence for ubiquitin-ligase activity in the mammalian ac-rosome, in part attributable to ubiquitin ligase UBR7 (red in inset, sper-matid-left, sperm-right; details in Miles et al., 2013, PNAS 110(16): 6334–6339).

transgenic boar (Fig.1), developed by his mentor’s lab in collaboration with Drs. Randall Prather and Kevin Wells, Michal examined the fate of previously reported GFP-proteasome co-purifying proteins (e.g. sperm ad-hesins and disintegrins) during early fertilization events.

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Dr. Kristin Whitworth is a research scientist in the Division of Animal Sciences at the University of Missou-ri. She completed her B.S. in agriculture from Illinois State University and a M.S. and PhD from the University of Missouri. Kristin focused most of her graduate stud-ies on methods to improve

pig oocyte activation and somatic cell nuclear transfer by performing transcriptional profiling on preimplantation embryos and extraembryonic membranes (placentas). Her PhD work helped improve cloning efficiencies by including histone deacetylase inhibitors such as Scriptaid and SAHA in the culture medium after fusion of the somatic cell to the oocyte. Kristin is now heavily focusing her research efforts on the use of gene editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 to create pig models for both disease resistance and biomedi-cine. Upon completion of her PhD studies in 2010, Kristin was presented with an opportunity to change her research focus to genetic engineering in pigs with the idea to create animals that are resistant to certain viruses. This was a won-derful opportunity to transition those experiences with ear-ly pig embryos and cloning and add a genetic engineering component. University of Missouri is home to the National Swine Resource and Research Center (NSRRC) (http://nsrrc.missouri.edu/), a facility developed to swine models to the biomedical research community making it the perfect place to work on a project like this with Dr. Randy Prather and Dr. Kevin Wells. The first disease on the list to tackle was porcine repro-ductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). PRRS is the most economically devastating pig disease across the world. Although research is ongoing, PRRS virus (PRRSV) has continued to elude a successful vaccination method. Since vaccines weren’t controlling the virus, it made sense to remove the protein or receptor that binds and internalizes

Feature ArticlesFaculty Spotlight Dr. Kristin Whitworth

the virus into the macrophage. Initial research had pointed to a protein called SIGLEC1 (CD169) as being the PRRSV entry mediator. A collaborative project between Dr. Randy Prather and Dr. Jonathan Green from the University of Missouri created the first SIGLEC1 knockout pigs. The next question was “How do we challenge these pigs with the PRRS virus?” They certainly didn’t want to bring a virus like this into the Animal Science Research Center. That set up the next collaboration with Dr. Bob Rowland from Kansas State University. He had the exact biosecure facility that was needed, and the pigs were transported to Kansas where they were challenged with the PRRS virus. To their dismay the pigs became very sick. A second potential virus mediator was CD163. The group moved forward with a plan to knock out the CD163 gene. They were fortunate that Dr. Kevin Wells had joined the faculty in the Division of Animal Sciences and brought his immense knowledge of genetic engineering with him. In 2013, Dr. Wells read a recent publication about using a new genetic engineering technology called CRISPR/Cas9 and suggested to Kristin that she try this new technology to speed up the method by which the CD163 gene could be knocked out. Within six months, the CD163 knock-out pigs were born. In contrast to CD163, the SIGLEC1 knockout pigs took over 10 years to create. This was just the tool that was needed efficiently edit the pig genome for agricultural and biomedical purposes. The CD163 knockout pigs were challenged with the PRRS virus through the same collaboration with Dr. Row-land at Kansas State University. This time around, the pigs conferred 100% resistance to PRRS virus infection. The pigs did not show any clinical sign of PRRS and there was no evidence of viremia or subsequent PRRSV antibody response. The PRRSV has two subtypes including a Type 2 (North American) and Type 1 (European) viral isolate. Sev-eral challenge experiments were performed and all of the CD163 knockout pigs were resistant to both Type 1 and Type 2 viral isolates even though both genotypes possess only about 60-70% identity at the nucleotide level. PRRSV causes respiratory disease and fever in young

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Feature ArticlesFaculty Spotlight Dr. Michal Zigocontinued from page 2

FIG.2: Flow cytometric measurements (A) of outer acrosomal membrane remodeling during in vitro capacitation with permissive/inhibiting proteaso-mal conditions and vehicle control, combined with epifluorescence imaging (B) using state-of-the art image-based flow cytometry (Amnis). Population gating and comparisons revealed that at least population 1 and 3 differ depending on proteasomal inhibition during capacitation. Acrosomes were stained with fluorescently-conjugated PNA lectin (green), and nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (purple).

He found that the capacitation dependent relocalization of these proteins was hindered; some of these proteins accumulated in spermatozoa capacitated under prote-asomal inhibition. He also observed that the inherent reorganization of the outer acrosomal and plasma membranes in preparation for acrosomal exocytosis was interrupted (Fig.2), and spermatozoa capacitated un-der proteasomal inhibition could not undergo induced acrosomal reaction (Fig.3). In a related study, Collabora-tors at the University of Illinois (David Miller lab) found UPS to participate on the capacitation-induced release of spermatozoa from oviductal epithelium. Altogether, this body of work indicates that the events of sperm capacitation are regulated by UPS, and the UPS itself undergoes modifications, implying UPS self-regulation during capacitation. Michal recently presented his data at the 50 anniversary meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in Washington DC, where he received a USDA-NIFA merit award for his poster. Upon project completion, Michal’s findings will en-hance the understanding of physiological capacitation and cryocapacitation which affects sperm quality after cryostorage both in human assisted reproductive tech-nologies, and in livestock semen cryopreservation for commercial artificial insemination. The Sutovsky labo-ratory, where he is currently working, maintains active collaborations with scientists and industry partners in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, India, Japan, Peru, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and USA.

FIG.3: Immunofluorescence imaging of live boar spermatozoa before capacitation (A) and after capacitation under proteasomal proteoly-sis-permissive (B) and inhibiting conditions (C) reveals the detachment of acrosomal shroud in capacitated spermatozoa without proteasomal inhibition. Vehicle control is shown in D. Acrosomes were stained with flu-orescently-conjugated PNA lectin (green), proteasomes were stained with polyclonal antibody against 20S core proteasomal units (red), and nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue).

growing pigs, but pregnant sows and gilts exposed to PRRSV in late gestation have transplacental transfer of the virus to the fetus resulting in stillborn and mummified fe-tuses. Their latest study shows that knocking out CD163 in the sow protects the wild type fetus from PRRSV infection thus preventing PRRS related reproductive losses. The gene editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 was used to create the first PRRS resistant CD163 knockout pigs in the world

right here at the University of Missouri. Kristin and team were able to accomplish their goal to create a PRRSV resis-tant pig because of their outstanding team of reproductive biologists and multi-institutional collaborations. Kristin has gained worldwide recognition for this work. She has been an invited speaker at numerous national and in-ternational meetings here in the United States, and most re-cently traveled to Hungary and China to present her results.

Dr. Kristin Whitworth continued from page 3

Conferences

50th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction was held July 13-16, 2017 in Washington D.C. Theme of the meeting was “50 Years of Research: Looking Back and Moving Forward.”

Fourteen trainee’s abstracts were accepted for either poster or oral presentation at the Annual SSR Meeting. Gregory Burns, Katherine Costello, Andrew Kelle-her, Yahan Li, Lauren Mayo, Ashley Meyer, Jenna Monnig, Bethany Mordhorst, Kelly Nabli, Eleanore O’Neil, Sofia Ortega, and Peng Wang presented post-ers of their research. Kelly Nabli was invited to present a Flash Talk to highlight her poster and Sofia Ortega was invited to present in the ASAS-SSR Triennial Reproduc-tion Symposium Poster Flash Talk Competition. Two Trainees were selected to make platform presen-tations for the Trainee Research Oral Talk Finalist Com-petition. Karl Kerns oral presentation “Zinc Signature of Mammalian Sperm Capacitation” and Megan Sheridan’s presentation “Primitive Human Placental Trophoblast May Display Different Infection Patterns to African and Asian Strains of Zika Virus which she was awarded first place. Dr. Michal Zigo, International Scholar in Dr. Su-tovsky’s laboratory and Karl Kerns were the recipients of USDA NIFA-AFRI Merit Awards. Yahan Li M.S. trainee in Dr. Rocío Rivera’s laboratory received a USDA–NIFA–AFRI Merit Award. Megan Sheridan and Peng Wang received the Lalor Foundation Merit Award and Lauren Mayo was selected as a Burroughs Welcome Trainee Travel Fellow. Symposia presentations were made by Dr. Laura Schultz entitled “Leptin as a Mediator of Maternal Nutritional Influences on Offspring,” Dr. Danny Schust entitled “How Can We Best Study the Immunobiology of Human Implantation?” and Dr. Peter Sutovsky entitled “Sperm Mitophagy during Fertilization.” Dr. Michael Smith opened the ASAS-SSR Triennial Reproduction Symposium with a talk “Reproduction in Domestic Rumi-nants during the Past 50 Years: Discovery to Application.”

50th SSR Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.

The 10th International Conference on Pig Repro-duction (ICPR) was hosted by the University of Mis-souri on June 11-14, 2017. ICPR is an ongoing series of conferences which was

initiated in 1981 as part of the 34th Easter School in Ag-ricultural Science. The topic of this Easter School was Control of Pig Reproduction and was organized by six of the leading swine reproductive scientists in the world at that time: Drs. B.N. Day (USA), P.J. Dziuk (USA), S.K. Webel, (USA), D.J.A. Cole (UK), C. Polge (UK) and G.R. Foxcroft (UK). These six scientists formed the In-ternational Organizing Committee (IOC) of the ICPR. The founders envisioned that the conference would act as a forum to bring together current knowledge in pig reproduction and its possible application within the commercial production of pigs. The title Control of Pig Reproduction was selected to be representative of both the physiological control of reproduction and the con-trol exerted by caretakers in the management of swine. After the initial meeting in Nottingham, UK the original founders established a rotation such that the conference would be held every 4 years and alternate between the University of Nottingham and University of Missouri. The 2nd International Conference on Pig Reproduction was held in 1985 at the University of Missouri-Colum-bia. Currently, the conference is being held at different venues around the world. The main scientific program included three morning sessions composed of four plenary presentations each dealing with (1) Gametes and Embryos; (2) Pregnan-cy, Parturition and the Neonate; and (3) Heat Stress. Parallel sessions dealing with applied pig reproduction and state of the art topics occurred in the afternoon and included poster sessions focusing on each broad topic. The presentations included topics on small RNAs, im-

The 10th International Conference onPig Reproduction (ICPR)

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IRHGInterdisciplinary Reproduction and Health Group

Seminar Series for the Fall 2017 SemesterMichael F. Smith, Ph.D., Curators’ Dis-tinguished Professor of Animal Science, University of Missouri, Wednesday, September 6, 2017at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Rod-ney Geisert. Title: “Reproduction in domestic animals over the past 50 years: Discovery to

application.”

Jodi A. Flaws, Ph.D., Director, De-partment of Comparative Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Univer-sity of Illinois, Thursday, September 14, 2017 at 4:00 pm in 103 ASRC – OBGYN Co-Sponsored. Host: Laura Schulz.

Title: “Effects of phthalates on the female reproductive system.”

Toshihiko Ezashi, D.V.M., Ph.D., Re-search Associate Professor, Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Wednesday, September 20, 2017at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: R. Mi-chael Roberts. Title: “Pluripotent human stem cells as models for creating placen-

tal syncytiotrophoblast.”

William H. Kinsey, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biolo-gy, School of Medicine, Kansas Universi-ty Medical Center, Wednesday, Septem-ber 27, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Rocio Rivera.Title: “Sperm-egg contact triggers outside-in

signaling important for fertilization.”

Asgerally T. Fazleabas, Ph.D., Profes-sor and Associate Chair of Research, De-partment of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, Thursday, October 5, 2017 at 4:00 pm in 103 ASRC – OBGYN Co-Sponsored.

Host: Mike RobertsTitle: “Notch signaling modulates the receptive uterus.”

Erma Z. Drobnis, Ph.D., Associate Pro-fessional Practice Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health; Reproductive Medicine & Fer-tility, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Laura

Schulz. Title: “Oil and gas drilling exposure and male reproduc-tive health.”

Kelle H. Moley, M.D., Director, Divi-sion of Basic Science Research, Depart-ment of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington Univer-sity School of Medicine in St. Louis, Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 12

Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Mike RobertsTitle: “The Obesity Epidemic-Could it be an oocyte issue?”

Liang Ma, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Department of Developmental Biology, Assistant Professor, Division of Dermatology, Washington Univer-sity School of Medicine in St. Louis, Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 12

Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Tom SpencerTitle: “Uterine biology: endocrine disruption and function in embryo implantation.”

Andrew M. Kelleher, Ph.D. Student, Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Tom SpencerTitle: “Biological significance of uterine gland function in successful pregnancy.”

IRHGInterdisciplinary Reproduction and Health Group

Seminar Series for the Fall 2017 SemesterSoumen Paul, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Institute for Reproductive Health and Regenerative Medicine, Department of Pathology and Labora-tory Medicine, Kansas University Med-ical Center, Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC.

Host: Tom SpencerTitle: “Transcriptional mechanisms and orchestration of trophoblast progenitors in a developing placenta.”

Anna Kukekova, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Cheryl Rosenfeld

Title: “Genomic cues into mechanisms of domesticated behav-ior in the silver fox.”

Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D., Thomas J. Watkins Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Obstet-rics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC.

Host: Rowan KarvasTitle: “From bench to bedside to babies: The behind the scenes story of Oncofertility.”

Stephen Moore, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Matt Lucy Title: “Progesterone and microbiome effects on the endometrium in dairy cows.”

Stephanie L. Clookey, M.S. Candidate, Department of Nutrition & Exercise Phys-iology, University of Missouri, Wednesday, December 13, 2017 at 12 Noon in 103 ASRC. Host: Victoria Vieira-Potter Title: “The role of estrogen receptor alpha in mediating the metabolically protective effects of beta

3 adrenergic agonists.”

Megan Sheridan Ph.D. trainee in Dr. Michael Roberts’ laboratory received 1st place in the 2017 SSR Trainee Research Award- Oral Talk Presentation Compe-tition. Her abstract title was “Primitive Human Placental Trophoblast May Display Different Infection Patterns to

African and Asian Strains of Zika Virus.”

Ashley Meyer, a M.S. student in Dr. Rodney Geisert’s laboratory, received 3rd place in the Master’s Oral Talk Pre-sentations during the ASGA Graduate Research Forum for her abstract enti-tled “Effect of Aromatase (CYP19A1) Deletion on Pre-implantation Embryo

Development and Conceptus Elongation in Pigs.”

Karl Kerns, Ph.D. trainee in Dr. Su-tovsky’s laboratory received the Out-standing Poster Award during the Missouri Life Sciences Week graduate student poster competition. He also received the Douglas D. Randall Young Scientists Development Fund award

from University of Missouri and was awarded a USDA NIFA Graduate Fellowship.

Jordan Thomas, Ph.D. trainee with Dr. David Patterson received the 2017 ASAS/ADSA Midwest Animal Sci-ence Young Scholars Award and the Agri-King Outstanding Animal Science Graduate Student Award during the 2017 Annual National ASAS meeting.

Greg Burns, a Ph.D. trainee in Dr. Thomas Spencer’s laboratory received 3rd place in the Ph.D. Oral Talk Pre-sentations during the ASGA Graduate Research Forum for his abstract entitled “Progesterone Affects Extracellular Vesicle Release into the Uterine Lumen

of Sheep.”

Katherine Costello, a M.S. student in Dr. Kathy Timms laboratory received 1st place in the M.S. Poster Presen-tations during the ASGA Graduate Research Forum for her abstract entitled “Developmental Exposure to Endo-metriosis Decreases Sperm Quality by

Altering Histone Methylation and Sperm Surface Glyco-sylation in Rat Epididymal Spermatozoa.”

Cameron Locke, a M.S. student in Dr. David Patterson’s laboratory received 1st place in in the Master’s Oral Talk Presentations during the ASGA Grad-uate Research Forum for his abstract entitled “Comparison of Long-term Progestin-based Protocols to Synchro-

nize Estrus Prior to Fixed-timed Artificial Insemina-tion or Natural Service in Bos indicus-influenced Beef Heifers.”

Joao Moraes, a Ph.D. trainee in Dr. Thomas Spencer’s laboratory, received 1st place in the Ph.D. Poster Presen-tations during the ASGA Graduate Research Forum for his abstract entitled “Conceptus Elongation in Beef Heif-ers with Superior Uterine Capacity for

Pregnancy.”

Megan McLean, a M.S. student in Dr. Michael Smith’s laboratory, received 2nd place in the M.S. Poster Presentations during the ASGA Graduate Research Forum for her abstract entitled “Effect of Preovulatory Estradiol on Conceptus Elongation in Beef Heifers.”

Stephanie Clookey, an M.S. student in Dr. Vicki Vieira-Potter’s laboratory, had her research presentation selected as a finalist in the American Society of Nu-trition Emerging Leaders competition. She presented her work titled “UCP1-Null Mice Display Increased Susceptibil-

ity to Ovariectomy-Associated Metabolic Dysfunction” as an oral and poster presentation at FASEB 2017.

Trainee Awards

Trainee HighlightsAndrew Kelleher received the Anita Payne Scholarship from SSR to attend the Frontiers in Reproduction course at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Twenty participants are selected each year from a competitive admissions pool. Frontiers in Reproduction is an

intensive 6 week laboratory and lecture course for sci-entists-in-training who seek to improve their knowledge and experimental skills in order to pursue a career in the Reproductive Sciences. FIR is held each summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachu-setts, a world-famous training ground for Experimental Biologists. http://www.mbl.edu/fir/

Dr. Pramod Dhakal completed his vet-erinary education in Nepal and pursued a PhD in Veterinary Science from Japan. Before joining ASRC from beginning of July, Pramod was a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Kansas Medical Center. He has worked on variety of

domestic and laboratory animals that centered around reproductive endocrinology and physiology. Through his education and experience, he gained the appreciation for the need to increase reproductive efficiency both in animals and humans. The most interesting aspect of reproduction to Pramod is the two-way communication that establishes between the fetus and the mother from early pregnancy period. Dr. Dhakal’s research aim is to understand how the maternal uterine environment and

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The 10th International Conference on Pig Reproduction (ICPR)printing and genetic engineering to whole animal physi-ology and management issues. The ICPR meeting had 174 attendees representing 18 countries with 70 abstracts presented following afternoon sessions. Dr. Bethany Redel, Dr. Michael Zigo, Karl Kerns and Cathy Bernhard made invited oral presentations of their research. Poster presentations were made by Juide Mao, Ashley Meyer, Bethany Mordhorst and Caroline Pfeiffer. Plenary and Break-out Session invited presentations were given by Dr.

Rodney Geisert entitled “Rapid Conceptus Elongation in the Pig: Interleukin 1 Beta 2 and Estrogen Regulated Phenomena,” Dr. Kristen Whitworth entitled “Gene Editing as Applied to Prevention of Porcine Repro-ductive and Respiratory Syndrome,” Dr. Matthew Lucy entitled “Heat Stress in Pregnant Sows: Thermal Responses and Subsequent Performance of Sow and Offspring,” and Dr. Kevin Wells entitled “Genomic Editing Technologies to Improve Research, Reproduc-tion and Production in Pigs.”

fetus derived placental factor work in co-ordination to establish and maintain a successful pregnancy. Dr. Dhakal indicates on the hind side of it, perturbation in this dialogue leads to multitude of pregnancy related dis-orders. Using laboratory animals like mice, and harness-ing the benefits of recent advancement in the genome editing techniques. Dr. Dhakal’s goal is to become an independent scientist and a teacher. He intends to work on materializing his ideas into internally and externally funded projects and establish his own program myself. Dr. Dhakal is very receptive for collaboration that can emerge among colleagues having diverse expertise and needs.

New Staff

Jessica Milano-Foster a native of Washington, IL received her BS in Chemistry at Truman State University in 2014 and a MS in Pathology and Lab-oratory Medicine from the University of Kansas Medical Center with Dr. Soumen Paul 2016. Her MS Thesis was

entitled “Regulation of human trophoblast syncytializa-tion by histone demethylase LSD1.” Jessica is currently working as Research Specialist in Dr. Tom Spencer’s lab.

Dalen Zuidema received a B.S. in An-imal Science from South Dakota State University were he conducted undergrad-uate research with our own MU ANSCI repro alum, Dr. George Perry. Dalen joined Dr. Peter Sutovsky’s laboratory where his research project will focus on

male fertility and mechanism of post-fertilization sperm mitophagy in livestock species.

Caroline Pfeiffer recently joined the lab-oratory of Dr. Rodney Geisert following completion of her B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Missouri. She will working on a research project to evaluate the role of prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 in pig conceptus development

and survival.

Jenna DeCata recently joined the labora-tory of Dr. Laura Schulz in the Division of Biological Sciences and is currently working on her PhD. Jenna got her B.S. in Genetics from the University of Iowa in 2016. Her current research interests include molecular/cell biology and she

has been working on the physiological implications of collagen in the uterus.

Dusti Eaton joined the laboratory of Dr. Vicki Vieira-Potter in the Depart-ment of Nutrition and Exercise Phys-iology and will begin work toward her MS degree in Fall 2017. She completed her BS in Anthropology in 2011 and has been volunteering in the Vieira-Potter

laboratory since 2016. Additionally, she has been working in the laboratory of Dr. Dennis Lubhan in the Depart-ment of Biochemistry, where she has been maintaining transgenic animal colonies. Her thesis work will investi-gate the role of aromatase on sex-specific relationships between metabolic and behavioral health.

Sofia Ortega competed for and is now a Preparing Future Faculty for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Scholar from the Office of Graduate Studies and Post-doctoral Education. Sofia’s future goal is to become a professor in the animal sciences field, and develop an interna-

tionally-recognized and extramurally-funded research program in bovine reproductive physiology that is centered on graduate education. She is particularly inter-ested in the underlying genomics of fertility regulation, which are the players driving maternal-embryo interac-tions, and how to regulate them to improve reproductive performance in mammals. One of Sofia’s career goals as a professor in the future is to become a successful men-tor for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in science. Sofia completed doctoral work at the University of Florida and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Erilkis Nogueira is a new vis-iting scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Sutovsky. He got his PhD in Animal Reproduction from UNESP – Universi-dade Estadual Paulista and M.S. Animal Science from UFMG- Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Currently, Dr.

Nogueira holds an appointment of Research scientist at the EMBRAPA Institute in Pantanal, Brazil, where we works in animal reproduction. His one year research stay at MU is focused on discovery and validation of bull fertility biomarkers.

Md. Bodruzzaman Sarker has recent-ly joined the Rivera laboratory to pursue a Ph.D. Before joining her laboratory, Mr. Sarker was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Science in the Faculty of Animal Husbandry at Bangladesh Agricultural University. He

received his Bachelor of Science in Animal Husbandry (Honours) and his Master of Science in Animal Science from the same institution.

New Trainees

Faculty Awards, Grants and HonorsNew Grants:

Jerry Taylor and colleagues MH Ahsan, MV Flinn and GE Blomquist received a University of Missouri Re-search Board grant on “Genetics of Metabolic Syndrome in a Caribbean village”, 6/1/17-5/31/18, $47,000.

Rodney Geisert, Thomas Spencer, Randy Prather and Kevin Wells received a USDA NRI NIFA Competitive Grant on Functional Analysis of Estrogens and Interferons in Porcine Conceptus Development and Implantation. 04/01/2017-03/30/2021, $499,968.

Awards and Honors:

Dr. Jerry Taylor was inducted into the St Louis Academy of Science Fellows in December of 2016.

Dr. Michael Smith was received the Roger Mitchell Fellow Award during the University of Missouri, CAFNR Cel-ebration of Excellence Program in March.

Dr. Tim Safranski will receive the University of Missouri Provost Donald W. Fancher Award for extension pro-gramming this fall.

Drs. Randall Prather and Michael Roberts had a featured article for their research on improving embryo culture conditions and blastocyst development. http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/mu-research-ivf-for-pigs-could-produce-results-for-people/article_7ae7d2ee-72ee-11e7-9d8c-fb33b5b1b563.html

Dr. Kristin Witworth’s 2014 paper “Use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to produce genetically engineered pigs from in vitro-derived oocytes and embryos” (Biol Reprod 91:78) was the number one top cited paper for the impact fac-tor of Biology of Reproduction in 2016.

Dr. Rodney Geisert’s 1982 paper “Establishment of pregnancy in the pig: I. Interrelationships between preim-plantation development of the pig blastocyst and uterine endometrial secretions” (Biol Reprod 27:925-939) was recognized as one of the top 50 cited papers during the 50th Anniversary meeting for the Society for the Study of Reproduction held in Washington, DC.

Dr. Peter Sutovsky received an Honorary Profes-sorship from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru which established in 1551 is the oldest University in all of Americas. Dr. Sutovsky’s former PhD student Shawn Zimmerman 2011 paper entitled “Sperm Proteasomes Degrade Sperm Receptor on the Egg Zona Pellucida during Mammalian Fertiliza-tion” ranked in top 10% most frequently cited papers published in PLoS One. PLoS ONE, 6(2):e17256

Faculty Invited PresentationsThomas SpencerFertility 2017, Edinburgh, Scotland “Extrinsic and Intrinsic Regulation of Pregnancy Establishment in Ruminants.” Center for Reproductive Health, Queen’s Medical Research Center, Edinburgh, Scotland “Uterine Glands: Essen-tial Players in Pregnancy Establishment.” International Embryo Transfer Society annual meeting, Austin, Texas “Insights into Conceptus Elongation and Pregnancy Establishment in Ruminants.”

Society for Reproductive Investigation annual meeting, Orlando, Florida “Extracellular Vesicles as Important Mediators of Uterine Function.”

New Technologies and Large Animals in Biomedical Research Symposium, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan “Understanding Fertility in Agriculturally Important Large Animals: Impacts of Technology.”

David G. Hall Research Symposium, College of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia “Biological Roles of Uterine Glands in Pregnancy Establishment.”

Randall PratherIowa Swine Day, Ames, IA, “Gene editing for animal agriculture: Practice and possibilities.”

Nidovirus meeting, Kansas City, MO, “Genetic engineering to answer basic questions about viral infection and immune function.”

Banff Pork Seminar, Banff, Canada, “Editing the genome for PRRSV resistance: where can we go from here?”

Michael RobertsKeynote Lecture, Large Animal Genetic Engineering for Biomedical and Agricultural Applications, Bethes-da, Maryland, “Status of transgenic farm animal research.”

Department of Physiology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, “Trophoblast generated from human pluripotent stem cells: evaluation of a pre-eclampsia phenotype and susceptibility to Zika virus.”

Billie A. Field Memorial Lecture, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, “Trophoblast generated from pluripotent stem cells: model for studying preeclampsia and Zika virus infection during pregnancy.”

Keynote Lecture, 2017 IETS (International Embryo Technology Society) 43rd Annual Conference, Session VI, Austin, Texas, “Exploring early differentiation and pluripotency in domestic animals.”

Center for Development and Stem Cell Biology, University of California San Francisco, “Trophoblast generated from pluripotent stem cells: model for studying preeclampsia and Zika virus infection during early pregnancy.”

Faculty Invited PresentationsToshihiko EzashiPRISMS 9th Smith-Magenis Syndrome Research Symposium. Houston, TX, “Stem cell based models for human neurons of monogenic neurological disorders.”

Stem Cells for Drug Discovery & Toxicity Screening, Boston, MA. “Pluripotent Human Stem Cells as Models for Creating Placental Syncytiotrophoblast.”

Mathew Lucy9th Annual B.C. Dairy Expo, Abbotsford, B.C. Canada, “Strategies to improve herd conception rate and pregnan-cy risk.”

Ucanorte XXI Conference, Porto, Portugal, “Mechanisms linking early postpartum negative energy balance and immunosuppression with subsequent reproductive success in dairy cows.”

XXI Conference on the Production and Reproduction of Cattle, Uberlândia, Brazil, “Nutrition, metabolism and uterine health in postpartum dairy cows.”

University College Dublin, Ireland, “The postpartum uterus of the dairy cow as a model for host-pathogen interactions during tissue regeneration.”

DeLaval Headquarters, Tumba, Sweden, “The Future of Dairy Reproduction.”

2017 International Dairy New Technology Conference, Taian, China, “Impact of nutritional management during the transition period on production and fertility of dairy cows.”

Rodney GeisertChinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Beijing, China, “Rapid Conceptus Elongation in the Pig: Interleukin 1 Beta 2 and Estrogen Regulated Phenomena.”

PublicationsBelenchia AM, Johnson SA, Kieschnick A, Rosenfeld CS, Peterson CA. 2017. Time-course of vitamin D depletion and repletion in reproductive age female C57/Bl6 mice: prelude to understanding maternal vitamin D deficiency-in-duced DOHaD effects in offspring. Comparative Medicine (In Press).

Belenchia AM, Johnson SA, Ellersieck MR, Rosenfeld CS, Peterson CA. 2017. In utero vitamin D deficiency pre-disposes offpring to long-term adverse adipose tissue effects. J Endocrinol epub. doi: 10.1530/JOE-17-0015.

Brooks K, Burns GW, Moraes JG, Spencer TE. 2016. Analysis of the uterine epithelial and conceptus transcrip-tome and luminal fluid proteome during the peri-implantation period of pregnancy in sheep. Biol Reprod 95:88.

Burns GW, Brooks KE, Spencer TE. 2016. Extracellular vesicles originate from the conceptus and uterus during early pregnancy in sheep. Biol Reprod 94:56.

Chen Z, Hagen DE, Wang J, Elsik CG, Ji T, Siqueira LG, Hansen PJ, Rivera RM. 2016. Global assessment of im-printed gene expression in the bovine conceptus by next generation sequencing. Epigenetics 11:501-516. Clegg D, Hevener AL, Moreau K, Morselli E, Van Pelt R,Vieira-Potter VJ. 2017. Sex and metabolism: Role of estrogen and estrogen receptors in cardiometabolic health. Endocrinology PMID: 28323912.

Geisert RD, Whyte J.J., Meyer A.E., Mathew D.J., Lucy M.C., Prather R.S., and Spencer T.E. 2017. Rapid Concep-tus Elongation in the Pig: Interleukin 1 beta 2 and Estrogen Regulated Phenomena. Mol Reprod Dev doi: 10.1002/mrd.22813.

Genovese, N.J., Domeier, T.L., Telugu, B.P., Roberts, R.M. 2017. Enhanced development of skeletal myotubes from porcine induced pluripotent stem cells. Sci Rep 7: 41833. PMID 28165492.

Javurek AB, Suresh D, Spollen WG, Hart ML, Hansen SA, Ellersieck MR, Bivens NJ, Givan SA, Upendran A, Kan-nan R, Rosenfeld CS. 2017. Gut dysbiosis and neurobehavioral alterations in rats exposed to silver nanoparticles. Sci Rep 2822. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02880-0.

Johnson SA, Spollen WG, Manshack LK, Bivens NJ, Givan SA, Rosenfeld CS. 2017. Hypothalamic transcriptomic alterations in male and female California mice (Peromyscus californicus) developmentally exposed to bisphenol A or ethinyl estradiol. Physiol Rep pii: e13133. doi: 10.14814/phy2.13133.

Johnson SA, Painter MS, Javurek AB, Murphy CR, Howald ER, Khan ZK, Conard CC, Gant KL, Ellersieck MR, Hoffmann FK, Schenk AK, Rosenfeld CS. 2017. Characterization of ultrasonic vocalizations by California Mice (Peromyscus californicus) Pups: A highly social rodent model. J Comparative Psychology 131:30-39.

Kelleher AK, Peng W, Pru JK, Pru CA, DeMayo FJ, Spencer TE. 2017. Forkhead box a2 (Foxa2) is essential for uterine function and fertility. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114:E1018-E1026.

Kelleher AK, Burns GW, Behura S, Wu G, Spencer TE. 2016. Uterine glands impact uterine receptivity, luminal fluid homeostasis and blastocyst implantation. Nature Scientific Reports 6,38078; doi: 10.1038/srep38078.

Kiser JN, SN White, KA Johnson, J Hoff, JF Taylor and HL Neibergs. 2017. Identification of loci associated with susceptibility to Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (Map) tissue infection in cattle. J Anim Sci 95:1080-1091.

PublicationsKiser JN, TE Lawrence, M Neupane, CM Seabury, JF Taylor, JE Womack and HL Neibergs. 2017. Rapid Commu-nication: Subclinical bovine respiratory disease - loci and pathogens associated with lung lesions in feedlot cattle. J Anim Sci 95:2726-2731.

Kolicheski A, Johnson GS, Villani NA, O’Brien DP, Mhlanga-Mutangadura T, Wenger DA, Mikoloski K, Eagleson JS, Taylor JF, Schnabel RD and Katz ML. 2017. GM2 gangliosidosis in Shiba Inu dogs with an inframe deletion in HEXB. J Vet Intern Med (In Press).

Kolicheski AL, GS Johnson, T Mhlanga-Mutangadura, JF Taylor, RD Schnabel, T Kinoshita, Y Murakami and DP O’Brien. 2017. A homozygous PIGN missense mutation in Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers with a canine paroxysmal dyskinesia. Neurogenetics 18:39-47.

Kolicheski A, HL Barnes Heller, S Arnold, RD Schnabel, JF Taylor, CA Knox, T Mhlanga-Mutangadura, DP O’Brien, GS Johnson, J Dreyfus, ML Katz. 2017. Homozygous PPT1 splice donor mutation in a Cane Corso Dog with neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. J Vet Int Med. 31:149-157.

Koshi K, Nakaya Y, Kizaki K, Ishiguro-Oonuma T, Miyazawa T, Spencer TE, Hashizume K. 2016. Induction of ovine trophoblast cell fusion by fematrin-1 in vitro. Animal Science Journal 87:419-422.

Kutteh W, Stanick-Kostic A, Schust DJ. 2017. Immunology and Reproduction. In Strauss J and Barbieri R (eds) Yen and Jaffe’s Reproductive Endocrinology, 8th edition, Philadelphia: WB Saunders Co., Harcourt Health Sciences.

Li L, Tu J, Jiang Y, Zhou J, Schust DJ. 2017. Regulatory T cells decrease invariant natural killer T cell-mediated pregnancy loss in mice. Mucosal Immunol 10:613-623.

Liu TW, Zidon TM, Welly RJ, Park YM, Britton SL, Koch LG, Rottinghaus GE, Cattai de Godoy MR, Padilla J, Swanson KS, Vieira-Potter VJ. 2017. Soy improves insulin sensitivity, adiposity, inflammation, and arterial stiffness and alters cecal microbiota of ovariectomized rats bred for low aerobic capacity. Scientific Reports (In Press).

Lucy MC, Safranski TJ. 2017. Heat stress in pregnant sows: Thermal responses and subsequent performance of sows and their offspring. Mol Reprod Dev doi: 10.1002/mrd.22844.

Lucy MC, Evans TJ, Poock SE. 2016. Lymphocytic foci in the endometrium of pregnant dairy cows: Characteriza-tion and association with reduced placental weight and embryonic loss. Theriogenology 86:1711-1719.

Manshack LK, Conard CM, Johnson SA, Bryan SJ, Deem SL, Holliday DK, Bivens NJ, Givan SA, Rosenfeld CS. 2017. Transcriptomic alterations in the brain of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) developmentally exposed to bi-sphenol A or ethinyl estradiol. Physiological Genomics 49:201-215. Chosen by the Editor-in-Chief to be feature on the online cover for this journal.

Molotsi AH, JF Taylor, SWP Cloete, F Muchadeyi, JE Decker, L Sandenbergh and K Dzama. 2017. Preliminary ge-nome-wide association study for wet-dry phenotype in smallholder ovine populations in South Africa. S Afr J Anim Sci 47:327-331.

Moore SG, Ericsson AC, Poock SE, Melendez P, Lucy MC. 2017. Hot topic: 16S rRNA gene sequencing reveals the microbiome of the virgin and pregnant bovine uterus. J Dairy Sci 100:4953-4960.

Nevoral J. Sutovsky P. 2017. Epigenome modification and ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis during pronuclear development of the mammalian zygote: Animal models to study pronuclear development. In: Animal Models and Human Reproduction. Schatten H, Constantinescu GM, Editors, Wiley-Blackwell, pages 435-466.

PublicationsO’Connell AR, McNatty KP, Hurst PR, Spencer TE, Bazer FW, Johnstone PD, Davis GH, Juengel JL. 2016. Ex-pression of activin A and follistatin during the oestrus cycle and early pregnancy in ewes. J Endocrinol 228:193-203.

Oko R., Aarabi M., Mao J, Balakier H, Sutovsky P. 2017. Sperm specific WW-domain binding proteins. In: The Sperm Cell: Production, Maturation, Fertilization, Regeneration. Second Edition, DeJonge C, Barratt C, Eds., Cam-bridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pages 157-176.

Ortega MS, AC Denicol, JB Cole, DJ Null, JF Taylor, RD Schnabel and PJ Hansen. 2017. Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms in candidate genes previously related to genetic variation in fertility with phenotypic measurements of reproductive function in Holstein cows. J Dairy Sci 100:3725-3734.

Park YM, Padilla J, Kanaley JA, Zidon T, Welly RJ, Britton SL, Koch LG, Thyfault JP, Booth FW, Vieira-Potter VJ. 2017. Voluntary running attenuates metabolic dysfunction in ovariectomized low fit rats. MSSE 49:254-264, PMID: 27669449.

Pennington KA, van der Walt N, Pollock KE, Talton OO, Schulz LC. 2017. Effects of acute exposure to a high-fat, high-sucrose diet on gestational glucose tolerance and subsequent maternal health in mice. Biol Reprod 96:435-445. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod.116.144543.

Pennington KA, Beffa LB, Schust DJ. 2017. Early placental development and disorders. In Farquharson R, Ste-phenson M, eds. Early Pregnancy, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press; pp. 43-53

Pohler K.G., Green J.A., Moley L.A., Gunewardena S., Hung W.T., Hong X., Christenson L.K., Geary T.W., Smith M.F. 2017. Circulating microRNA as candidates for early embryonicviability in cattle. Mol Reprod Devel (In Press).

Popescu, L, N.N. Gaudreault, K.M. Whitworth, M. Murgia, J.C. Nietfeld, M. Samuel, A. Mileham, K.D. Wells, R.S. Prather, R.R.R. Rowland. 2017. Genetically edited pigs lacking CD163 show no resistance following infection with the African swine fever (ASF) Georgia 07 virus. Virology 501:102-106 doi:10.1016/j.virol.2016.11.012 PMID 27898335.

Prather, R.S., K.M. Whitworth, S.K. Schommer, K.D. Wells. 2017. Genetic engineering alveolar macrophages for host resistance to PRRSV. Vet Micro doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2017.01.036. PMID 28215617.

Samejima T, Nagamatsu T, Schust DJ, Iriyama T, Sayama S, Sonoda M, Komatsu A, Kawana K, Osuga Y, Fujii T. 2017. Labor prediction based on the expression patterns of multiple genes related to cervical maturation in human term pregnancy. Am J Reprod Immunol doi: 10.1111/aji.12711. [Epub ahead of print]

Scott, P.A., J.P. Fernandez de Castro, P.J. DeMarco, J.W. Ross, J. Njoka, E. Walters, R.S. Prather, M.A. McCall, H.J. Kaplan. 2017. Progression of Pro23His retinopathy in a miniature swine model of retinitis pigmentosa. Translation-al Vision Science and Technology. 6: 4-4 doi: 10.1167/tvst.6.2.4. eCollection 2017. PMID 28316877.

Seabury CM, DL Oldeshulte, M Saatchi, JE Beever, JE Decker, YA Halley, EK Bhattarai, M Molaei, HC Freetly, SL Hansen, H Yampara-Iquise, KA Johnson, MS Kerley, JW Kim, DD Loy, E Marques, HL Neibergs, RD Schnabel, DW Shike, ML Spangler, RL Weaber, DJ Garrick and JF Taylor. 2017. Genome-Wide Association Study For Feed Efficiency and Growth Traits in U.S. Beef Cattle. BMC Genomics 18: 386.

Sheridan, M.A., Yunusov, D., Balaraman, V., Alexenko, A.P., Yabe, S., Verjovski-Almeida, S., Schust, D.J., Franz, A.W., Sadovsky, Y., Ezashi, T., Roberts, R.M. (2017). Vulnerability of primitive human placental trophoblast to Zika virus. Proc Nat Acad Sci 114: E1587-E1596. PMID: 28193876.

Publications Siqueira LG, Tribulo P, Chen Z, Denicol AC, Ortega MS, Negrón-Pérez VM, Kannampuzha-Francis J, Pohler KG, Rivera RM, Hansen PJ. 2017. Colony-stimulating factor 2 acts from days 5 to 7 of development to modify pro-gramming of the bovine conceptus at day 86 of gestation. Biol Reprod 96:743-757.

Vandenberg LN, Blumberg B, Antoniou MN, Benbrook CM, Carroll L, Colborn T, Everett LG, Hansen M, Landrigan PJ, Lanphear BP, Mesnage R, Vom Saal FS, Welshons WV, Myers JP. 2017. Is it time to reassess current safety standards for glyphosate-based herbicides? J Epidemiol Community Health 71:613-618.

Walters, E.M., K.D. Wells, E.C. Bryda, S. Schommer, R.S. Prather. 2017. Swine models, genomic tools and services to enhance our understanding of human health and diseases. Lab Animal 46:167-172. PMID 28328880.

Wells, K.D., R. Bardot, K.M. Whitworth, B.R. Trible, Y. Fang, A. Mileham, M.A. Kerrigan, M.S. Samuel, R.S. Prather. R.R.R. Rowland. 2017. Replacement of porcine CD163 scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain 5 with a CD163-like homolog confers resistance to genotype 1 but not genotype 2 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome viruses. J Virol 91, E01521-16 Nov 9 (Epub). PMID 27847356.

Wells, K.D., R.S. Prather. 2017. Genome editing technologies to improve research, reproduction and production in pigs. Mol Reprod Dev. doi: 10.1002/mrd.22812. PMID: 28394093.

Whitacre LK, JL Hoff, RD Schnabel, S Albarella, F Ciotola, V Peretti, F Strozzi, C Ferrandi, L Rammuno, TS Sonstegard, JL Williams, JF Taylor and JE Decker. 2017. Elucidating the genetic basis of an oligogenic birth defect using whole genome sequence data in a non-model organism, Bubalus bubalis. Sci Rep 7:39719.

Whitworth, K.M., J.A. Benne, L.D. Spate, S.L. Murphy, M.S. Samuel, C.N. Murphy, J.A Richt, E. Walters, R.S. Prather, K.D. Wells. 2017. Zygote injection of CRISPR/Cas9 RNA successfully modifies the target gene without delaying blastocyst development or altering the sex ratio in pigs. Transgenic Research (Epub) 26:97-107. PMID 27744533.

Whitworth, K.M., R.S. Prather. 2017. Gene editing as applied to prevention of reproductive porcine reproduc-tive and respiratory syndrome. International Conference on Pig Reproduction. Mol Reprod Dev. doi: 10.1002/mrd.22811. PMID: 28390179.

Winn NC, Grunewald ZI, Gastecki ML, Woodford ML, Welly RJ, Clookey SL, Ball JB, Gains TL, Karasseva NG, Kanaley JA, Sacks HS, Vieira-Potter VJ, Padilla J. 2017. Deletion of UCP1 enhances ex vivo aortic vasomotor function in female but not male mice despite simlar susceptibility to metabolic dysfunction. AJP Endocrinology and Metabolism (In Press).

Wright EC, Johnson SA, Hao R, Kowalczyk AS, Greenberg GD, Ordoñes Sanchez E, Laman-Maharg A, Trainor BC, Rosenfeld CS. 2017. Exposure to extrinsic stressors, social defeat or bisphenol A, eliminates sex differences in DNA methyltransferase expression in the amygdala. J Neuroendocrinol 29, doi: 10.1111/jne.12475.

Yuan, Y., Spate, L.D., Redel, B.K., Tian, Y., Zhou, J., Prather, R.S., Roberts, R.M. 2017. Quadrupling efficiency in production of genetically modified pigs through improved oocyte maturation. Proc Nat Acad Sci pii. 201703998. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28673989.

Yang, J., S. Menges, P. Gu, R. Tongbai, M. Samuel, R.S. Prather, H. Klassen. 2017. Porcine neural progenitor cells derived from tissue at different gestational ages can be distinguished by global transcriptome. Cell Transplantation doi: 10.3727/096368916X694355. PMID 28120744.