Project 5:

Effects of co-culture with oviduct or uterine cells on morphology and gene expression of bovine pre-implantation embryos
Phase 2: Phenotyping of bovine embryos

Fred Sinowatz, Felix A. Habermann

The second project phase focusses on the basis of successful embryo-maternal communication on the embryonic side. We comparatively study in vitro produced embryos cultured under different conditions and ex vivo collected embryos by combining high-resolution microscopic techniques such as confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with molecular biology approaches such as DNA- and RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (DNA and RNA FISH) and quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR).

The second project phase includes the following work packages:

• Study of the nuclear architecture and the occurrence of nuclear anomalies

• Study of the genome activation and the nucleologenesis

• Analysis of cell divisions and the spatial-temporal occurrence of apoptosis

• Analysis of the formation of cell-cell contacts during compaction

• Analysis of the spatial-temporal expression of candidate genes at the RNA and protein level in early embryos

• Analysis of the spatial-temporal expression of candidate genes at the RNA and protein level in the oviduct and uterus

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