The Sex Ratio of Bovine Hatched Blastocysts Produced and Cultured In Vitro as Determined by the Polymerase Chain Reaction

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The sex ratio of bovine hatched blastocysts produced and cultured in vitro was examined by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total of 190 hatched blastocysts was obtained between 188 and 248 h post insemination (hpi). The hatching rates expressed as a percentage of the total one-cell presumptive zygotes (0 hpi) and of cleaved embryos (72 hpi) were 31.8 and 46.7%, respectively. The sex of 189 embryos (99.5%) was successfully determined. The results of agarose gel electrophoresis clearly indicated that male embryos gave a double band with male-specific and gender-neutral primers, and females gave a single band with gender-neutral primers alone. The overall sex ratio was 51.9%(98/189), which did not significantly differ from the expected ratio of 1:1. Based on the observations at 12 h intervals, embryos were divided into three developmental groups according to the timing of hatching. The sex ratio of the fast group (188-200 hpi) was shifted to males (59.4%, 38/64), although with no significantly difference from the expected ratio of 1:1. On the other hand, the intermediate (212 hpi) and slow (224-248 hpi) groups had slightly more females than males (47.1%, 33/70) and the sex ratio close to the expected ratio of 1:1 (49.1%, 27/55), respectively.
日本哺乳動物卵子学会の論文