Elite bull semen is a commercial product in cattle breeding because it is extensively used in artificial insemination and artificial reproductive technologies such as IVF and MOET. In addition to genetic variation, epigenetic changes can also be transmitted to embryos originating from bull’s sperm which in turn can affect embryo methylome, transcriptome, its development and eventually the phenotypic performance of calves.
We have a Masters project which is aimed at evaluating the impact of Sperm DNA methylation on Invitro Produced (IVP) embryo methylome and transcriptome as well as developmental and morphological characteristics of embryos. The project involves handling next generation sequencing datasets on epigenetics and gene expression of the bull’s sperm and embryos, namely RRBS and RNA-seq and conducting subsequent bioinformatics and reproductive systems biology analyses.
Analyses will involve using 20 sets of RRBS and 20 sets of RNA-seq to finding Differentially Methylated Cytosines (or DMCs) and Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) and constructing Gene Co-expression Networks (GCN).
Anytime, but no later than 2026
Dept. of Animal & Veterinary Sciences, AU Viborg.
30 ECTS: Theoretical thesis based on literature studies and/or analysis of issued and edited data sets.
(E.g. perquisites, conditions, useful reading, etc...... )
