Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (3): 766-777.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.03.010

• ANIMAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND REPRODUCTION • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Morphological Differences of X and Y Sperm Nuclei and Their Influencing Factors in Holstein Bulls

DING Fengling1, SHANGGUAN Aishao1, ZHOU Yang1, DING Rui2, SUN Wei2, LI Xihe2, ZHANG Shujun1*   

  1. 1. Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;
    2. Inner Mongolia Saikexing Reproductive Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Hohhot 011517, China
  • Received:2021-07-19 Online:2022-03-23 Published:2022-03-31

Abstract: This study was conducted to analyze the differences of nuclear morphology (including sperm size and shape) between Holstein bull X and Y sperm, clarifying the effects of freezing and flow sorting on the nuclear morphology of bull X and Y sperm. Six types of sperm nuclei images from 15 healthy Holstein bulls with the same age were captured by fluorescence microscopy for fresh and frozen non-sexed sperm, and fresh and frozen X and Y sperm. The Image J plug-in Nuclear Morphology Analysis was used to analyze the 8 indices information related to the morphology of 37 000 sperm nuclei images. The results showed that the proportion of bulls with significant difference in sperm nucleus morphology between X and Y (P<0.05) was less than 50%. After flow sorting, the sperm nucleus area, perimeter and length of 8 (8/11) bulls, the width of 6 (6/11) bulls changed significantly|The ellipticity, elongation and regularity of sperm nuclei in 5 (5/11) bulls and the circularity of sperm nuclei in 3 (3/11) bulls changed significantly. After freezing, there were significant differences in sperm nuclear area and perimeter among 11 (11/14) bulls, the length of sperm nuclei among 10 (10/14) bulls, width of sperm nuclei among 9 (9/14) bulls changed significantly|And there were significant differences in sperm nucleus circularity among 5 (5/14) bulls, regularity, elongation and ellipticity of sperm nuclei among 6 (6/14) bulls changed significantly. Only 4 bulls had significant differences in the size of X and Y sperm nuclei before freezing, but added to 8 bulls after freezing. Based on the analysis of morphological information from a large number of sperm nuclear images, it could be clarified that flow sorting and freezing had the significant impact on the nuclear size of Holstein bull sperm, and the impact of freezing on the nuclear size of Holstein bull Y sperm was higher than that of X sperm. The research will provide a reference for the improvement of sex-controlled sperm sorting and sperm freezing, and are of great significance to the improvement of bull production performance and cow economic benefit.

Key words: size of sperm nuclei, sperm nuclei morphology, sperm flow sorting, sperm freezing, Holstein bull

CLC Number: