Melatonin and seasonal reproduction in yak

ABSTRACT

Yak, an important mammal on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, begins its breeding season in the autumn and is considered to be a short-day breeder. It is generally postulated that the pineal hormone melatonin synchronizes the ovine reproductive cycle with the environmental photoperiod through neuroendocrine changes in the hypothalamus–pituitary–gonadal axis in several mammals. Here, it is proposed that melatonin initiates estrus in the breeding season through the hypothalamus–pituitary–gonadal axis. Our current understanding of melatonin underlying seasonal breeding in the yak is summarized and we review the regulative effect and mechanism of melatonin in the natural seasonal reproduction of yak.

KEYWORDS:

• Photoperiod
• initiated
• breeding season
• yak

Acknowledgments

The finalization of this article relies on the opinions of the authors of all of the papers. We are very grateful for their contributions to this article

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (31920190044, 31920190204), Key research and development program of Gansu Province (17YF1NA067), and the program for CHANGJIANG Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT13091), P.R. China.