Lethal gene may help explain dropping pregnancy rates

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DL

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We may have touched on this before but I just read a synopsis in Hoards Dairyman and thought it was pretty interesting. Fertility has decreased in dairy cattle over the past 20 years (worldwide, actually). This decrease in fertility is believed to be related to single trait selection - ie production over fertility (must admit this single trait selection is very reminiscent of what we are seeing in certain circles of the beef world).

SOrry, I digress - anyhow researchers from U of Wisc have discovered a defective gene (for knabe it is a SNP in a transcription factor gene) that is associated with reduced survival of embryos in cattle. Death of embryos homozygous for this defect (GG) occurs much earlier than previously recognized.

They then took sperm from homozygyous normal (CC) and heterozygous (GC) bulls and did in vitro fertilization resulting in 772 IVF embryos. Survival was measured at different times and found that 2 copies of the normal C gene (CC) lead to much better survival. In otherwords embryos of the CC genotype survived better than either CG or GG....food for thought when selecting traits
 

knabe

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any more on this dl,

can't believe i didn't see this post before.

transcription factors i guess are classified as a gene since it's transcribed and translated.  but what they do is land on a site either upstream or downstream of a gene and initiate transcription and then this product is translated usually through the nucleous.  they can exist in a complex of other molecules, so more than one thing may be required for a gene to get going, including the presence of a non translated mRNA, a non dna based molecule.  little is know about this compared to genes and genomes and could be a source of environmental factors necessary for genes to express.

for instance, in h7:157 E. coli, the bacteria "talk" to each other when a critical mass is reached and then create toxins.  kinda like a fertility party.  the neatest one that relates to cattle is one we sequenced a lot of in various organisms.  it's called the hox gene.  we sequenced in everything from ceolocanth fish, humans, manatee, you name it, it's probably one of the more sequenced genes.

the hox gene is related to body pattern, and this is why i am extremely interested in what gene the PHA gene is.  i will fall on the floor in total awe to barrel racer and beever if it is a hox gene.  still, it could be other genes.  any news barrelracer?

for those not too bored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox
 

Barrel Racer

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knabe said:
the hox gene is related to body pattern, and this is why i am extremely interested in what gene the PHA gene is.  i will fall on the floor in total awe to barrel racer and beever if it is a hox gene.  still, it could be other genes.  any news barrelracer?

for those not too bored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox

Just sent you an e-mail you might find interesting..... and no the PHA gene isn't public yet  ;D
 

red

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I was very interested in the work that is being done on spastic paralsis (sp?). Since serval of us have had calves affected w/ this condition I hope you get the green light.

Red
 

chambero

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We seem to have solved our spastic paresis problem (at least in having affected calves) by selling our suspect bull last year for slaughter.  We had a calf two years in a row out of him.  We don't have any affected calves this year thank goodness.  I would rather them die at birth than have to watch those pathetic creatures.  I put the last one down myself.
 

shortyisqueen

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I think I probably missed this conversation before...but I'm curious, what is spastic paresis? What are the characteristics of this defect? And how is it inherited? (both parents, one parent, etc.). Thanks...
 

knabe

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here's a link

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/90548.htm

i guess you can imagine how this would be important, especially if comined with some traits that seem to be prevalent.

totally interesting this is in a transcription factor gene, as this would be shorter, and any change in the dna since they are short could lead to a higher percent change in overall structure compared to a longer gene, though binding sites are usually shorter in length anyway over the binding area compared to the overall shape of a protein.  if it doesn't lock in there as good as a wild type, this can lead to problems both over and underexpression depending on the pathway, particularly if there are multiple copies of the gene in addition to the two possible alleles at the same gene location.
 
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