Source: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH TO ELUCIDATE THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SPERM ZN SIGNATURE TO BOAR & BULL FERTILITY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1025462
Grant No.
2019-67012-34005
Cumulative Award Amt.
$75,734.41
Proposal No.
2020-11180
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2020
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2022
Grant Year
2021
Program Code
[A7201]- AFRI Post Doctoral Fellowships
Recipient Organization
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
2229 Lincoln Way
AMES,IA 50011
Performing Department
Animal Science
Non Technical Summary
Currently, there is limited knowledge of how to avoid use of low or infertile male pigs and cattle (called boars and bulls respectively). This is an issue because poor fertility males can be unknowingly used and thus use valuable resources, such as feed and energy, while creating no offspring to be later consumed. Also, when a male is known to have high fertility, changes can be easily adopted to sire more offspring, thus allowing increased usage of genetically superior males with higher feed efficiency and other desirable traits to decrease the amount of resources used per pound of protein produced. This project makes use of known sperm fertilization competency biomarkers to identify "fertility competent" and "fertility incompetent" sperm, allowing for predictive algorithms to create a male fertility prediction model.Upon implementation of results, such will be beneficial for citizens by the ability to decrease the cost of pork (primary focus) and beef (secondarily) production on a per pound basis and help eliminate unnecessary use of environmental resources. Further, an average increase of an extra piglet/litter could increase US pork farmer annual income by $130 million. Results of such technology can aid in global dissemination of high value genetics to support food security. Outcomes from this study can later provide insight for a similar human study which can help reduce the total costs of human assisted reproductive technology and help eliminate unnecessary emotional costs for couples struggling with infertility.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
20%
Developmental
70%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
30135991081100%
Knowledge Area
301 - Reproductive Performance of Animals;

Subject Of Investigation
3599 - Swine, general/other;

Field Of Science
1081 - Breeding;
Goals / Objectives
Remaining Transfer Goals:Goal #1Finalize imaging with a microscope and analyzing bioimage values of boar spermatozoa to correlate with boar fertility.Goal #2Describe biomarker defined differences in sex-sorted bull spermatozoa versus conventional.
Project Methods
Methods include image-based flow cytometry, microscopy, and machine learning.

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Both domestic and foreign audiences learned about this research through publications and selection to be presented virtually and in person at conferences reported under products category in this final report. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided opportunities for five undergraduate students and one graduate student to study and perform research, and fostered mentorship of collaborating lab graduate students. Both domestic and foreign audiences learned about this research through publications and oral presentations, including industry groups through collaborations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Both domestic and foreign audiences learned about this research through publications and selection to be presented virtually and in person at conferences reported under products category in this final report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact statement: It is known that after standard sperm motility and morphology cutoffs are met, that 25% of boars still have less than 80% conception rates. This is unacceptable to U.S. farmers and unnecessarily uses resources (e.g., feed & energy) that otherwise could have produced a nutritious food supply for taxpayers. Each additional piglet per litter would increase U.S. pork farmer income by $130 million annually. On the cattle side, infertility costs the U.S. dairy industry alone (not including beef production) $4.7 billion annually. This project ultimately helps us have a better understanding of boar and bull sperm fertility, aiding in deciding which sires have high fertility suited for breeding and helps create new methods to increase fertility. Overall Goal #1: Elucidate the in vitro capacitated boar and bull sperm zinc signature subpopulation relationship to field fertility. Relationships between boar and bull sperm in vitro capacitation subpopulation changes were made with field fertility. While traditional motility and morphology metrics had zero prediction ability after standard quality cutoffs were met, we achieved near 78% prediction of pregnancy success, which is a significant milestone to improving livestock reproductive physiology. Overall Goal #2: Create a reformulated boar semen extender to preferentially manage the sperm zinc signature and decrease premature pathological sperm capacitation. We reformulated boar semen extender to preferentially manage the sperm zinc signature and decreased premature pathological sperm capacitation. This extender is currently being translated to U.S. stakeholders to increase reproductive performance of boar semen.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Lawlor M, Zigo M, Kerns K, Cho IK, Easley CA, Sutovsky P. 2022. Spermatozoan Metabolism as a Non-Traditional Model for the Study of Huntingtons Disease. Intl J of Molc Sci. DOI: 10.3390/ijms23137163
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Zigo M, Kerns K, Sen S, Essien C, Oko R, Xu D, Sutovsky P. 2022. Zinc is a master-regulator of sperm function associated with binding, motility, and metabolic modulation during porcine sperm capacitation. Commun. Biol. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03485-8
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Ortega MS, Rizo J, Drum J, O'Neil E, Pohler K, Kerns K, Schmelze A, Green J, Spencer T. 2022. Development of an Improved in vitro Model of Bovine Trophectoderm Differentiation. Anim. Front. DOI: 10.3389/fanim.2022.898808


Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience: Researchers, undergraduate students, veterinarians, livestock breeders, and industry suppliers. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 is still ongoing. Some conferences that were scheduled got delayed, canceled, or went virtual. Supply chain is still behind, supplies ordered 9 months ago still have not arrived. All this considered, the project is still moving forward positively. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided opportunities for five undergraduate students and one graduate student to study and perform research, and fostered mentorship of collaborating lab graduate students. Both domestic and foreign audiences learned about this research through publications and oral presentations, including industry groups through collaborations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Both domestic and foreign audiences learned about this research through publications and selection to be presented virtually and in person at conferences reported under products category in this annual progress report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goal #1: Finalize making correlations between bioimage values with known boar field fertility. Goal #2: Finalize describing biomarker defined differences between sex-sorted versus conventional bull sperm.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact of work performed here will allow better fertility diagnostics for boars, which is currently limited. Recent data shows 25% of boars have less than 80% conception rates. Current methods do not allow identifying these boars and lead to inefficiencies in pork production. Likewise, it is understood that flow cytometry sex sorting bull sperm can reduce the fertility of bulls; however, it is bull dependent. Being able to identify which bulls are "good sorters" versus "bad sorter" would allow for better reproductive performance of cattle and dairy operations. Goal #1: Images were acquired with the microscope. Bioimage values are being extracted for analysis and correlating with boar fertility. Goal #2: Samples were acquired and analyzed by image-based flow cytometry. Differences are currently being examined.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Momal S, Kerns K, Sutovsky P, Bovin N, Miller D. 2021. Progesterone Induces Porcine Sperm Release from Oviduct Glycans in a Proteasome-dependent Manner. Reproduction. DOI: 10.1530/REP-20-0474
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kerns K. Sperm zinc ion flux as a marker of the acquisition of fertilization competency in bull spermatozoa. 2021 Animal Andrology Association of Brazil Annual Meeting. Compo Grande, Brazil.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kerns K. Boar Sperm Zinc Ion Flux as a Marker for the Acquisition of Fertilization Competency. 2021 Boar Stud Manager Conference. St. Louis, MO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: 2. Zuidema D, Kerns K, Zigo M, Hamilton L, Sutovsky P. An Exploration of Semen Analysis and Sperm Selection for Livestock Artificial Insemination. National Association of Animal Breeders. Online due to COVID-19.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kerns K. Opening the Black Box of Fertility Prediction. American Society of Animal Science, Midwest Section Meeting. Online due to COVID-19. Omaha, NE.