PARENT SESSION

(M544) FOLLICULAR MARKERS RELATED TO OOCYTE COMPETENCE IN BOVINE.

Lemay, Nicolas¹, Blondin, Patrick², Coenen, Karine¹, Sirard, Marc-Andre¹, ¹ Laval University, Quebec, Quebec² L'Alliance Boviteq Inc., St-Hyacinthe, Quebec

ABSTRACT- The purpose of this project is to compare the protein patterns of bovine follicular fluid (BFF) associated with follicles that contained oocyte which became blastocyst following fertilization to follicular fluid from incompetent follicles. A total of six cyclic heifers were superovulated as published before and the follicular fluid samples were collected from three follicles in which the oocytes developed into embryos and three from follicles in which the oocytes did not developed into embryos. First, a anti-Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) column (Seppro BSA-SC, Genway) was used to remove a large part of BSA. Then, all BFF samples were processed simultaneously for high-resolution two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Images were digitalized and analysed with phoretix 2D Expression (nonlinear dynamics) and the comparative analysis of the 2-D gels revealed 5 spots with blue staining (Gel Code, Pierce) and 12 spots with silver staining that were present in all competent follicles samples ( n=3) and not in the incompetent. Most of these interesting candidates have molecular weight between 12 and 35 kd and pI of 8. These small peptides were previously masked by the high albumin content of the follicular fluid. The specific spots have been excised and sent for sequencing and identification. Research support by NSERC Canada and L'Alliance Bovitech.

KEY WORDS: Follicular fluid, Oocyte competent, proteomic, bovine