现代养牛中的“辅助生殖技术”一词,人们可能暗示收集旨在最佳利用牛配子以时间和成本有效的方式生产具有高遗传价值的动物的技术。精子质量的准确表征对于几种辅助生殖相关程序的效率起着至关重要的作用。比如精子处理,体外胚胎生产和人工授精。公牛生育力最终是一系列射精承受精子处理压力的能力的集体投射,并实现卵母细胞受精和产生有活力和发育良好的胚胎。在这个概念中,精子功能和分子特征的评估是公牛生育诊断和预后的关键。其中,与精子质膜相关的功能特征,顶体和DNA完整性通常被评估为衡量精子表达表型的能力,这将使它们能够维持其体内平衡并以严格的时间方式协调事件的过程,这些事件将使其遗传内容传递到受精后的卵母细胞。然而,精子功能的测量并不总是公牛生育能力的适当指标。如今,分子生物学领域的进步促进了雄配子中几种生物分子的谱分析。牛精子的分子谱分析提供了对精子生理学潜在机制的更深入的了解,因此,可以揭示公牛生育力预后的新候选标记。在这次审查中,三个细胞器的重要性(细胞核,质膜和顶体)在功能和分子水平上讨论了精子受精能力和公牛生育能力的表征。特别是,关于精子头部形态测量的信息,染色质结构,与雄性配子的耐低温性和公牛的生育能力有关,提出了活力以及精子的能力和顶体反应能力。最后,主要精子编码和非编码RNA,还总结了参与上述精子功能方面的蛋白质。
With the term \"assisted reproduction technologies\" in modern cattle farming, one could imply the collection of techniques that aim at the optimal use of bovine gametes to produce animals of high genetic value in a time- and cost-efficient manner. The accurate characterisation of sperm quality plays a critical role for the efficiency of several assisted reproduction-related procedures, such as sperm processing, in vitro embryo production and artificial insemination. Bull fertility is ultimately a collective projection of the ability of a series of ejaculates to endure sperm processing stress, and achieve fertilisation of the oocyte and production of a viable and well-developing embryo. In this concept, the assessment of sperm functional and molecular characteristics is key to bull fertility diagnostics and prognostics. Among others, functional features linked to sperm plasma membrane,
acrosome and DNA integrity are usually assessed as a measure of the ability of sperm to express the phenotypes that will allow them to maintain their homeostasis and orchestrate-in a strict temporal manner-the course of events that will enable the delivery of their genetic content to the oocyte upon fertilisation. Nevertheless, measures of sperm functionality are not always adequate indicators of bull fertility. Nowadays, advancements in the field of molecular biology have facilitated the profiling of several biomolecules in male gametes. The molecular profiling of bovine sperm offers a deeper insight into the mechanisms underlying sperm physiology and, thus, can reveal novel candidate markers for bull fertility prognosis. In this
review, the importance of three organelles (the nucleus, the plasma membrane and the
acrosome) for the characterisation of sperm fertilising capacity and bull fertility is discussed at functional and molecular levels. In particular, information about sperm head morphometry, chromatin structure, viability as well as the ability of sperm to capacitate and undergo the
acrosome reaction are presented in relation to the cryotolerance of male gametes and bull fertility. Finally, major spermatozoal coding and non-coding RNAs, and proteins that are involved in the above-mentioned aspects of sperm functionality are also summarised.