Project 7

Heat stress in bulls: impact of DNA methylation, sncRNAs and extracelular vesicles on semen and embryo quality

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Host Institution:

CRV (Arnhem, Netherlands)

Doctoral Candidate: Arooj Azeem

Supervisor: Dr. Marleen Broekhuijse

Co-supervisor: Dr. Ann Van Soom | Dr. Sebastian Canovas

Mentor: Dr. Amelie Bonnet-Garnier

Institution of enrolment:

Other institutions involved/secondments:

Enrolment in Doctoral degrees: UGENT (Life Sciences)-UMU (Biology and Technology of Reproductive Health)

OBJECTIVES

Identify differentially methylated cytosines and sncRNAs between heat-stressed and control samples from seminal plasma EVs and semen.
Identify post-zygotic alterations in the transcriptome (RNA and sncRNA) and the epigenome (chromatin accessibility and histone profiles) of embryos generated with heat-stressed semen samples, as well as sperm incubated with seminal extracellular vesicles from heat-stressed bulls, to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms by which the sperm epigenome may influence embryo development.