Polyunsaturated fatty acids influence offspring sex ratio in cows

Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University.

Figures & data

Table 1 Oligonucleotide primer sequence and amplicon size used for PCR.

Gene	Sequence	Accession number
SRY	Forward: AAA CAG TGC AGT CGT ATG CTT CTG Reverse: GCC TTT GTT AGC GAG AGT AAG GAA	EU294189.1
GADPH	Forward: CCA ACG TGT CTG TTG TGG ATC TGA Reverse: GAG CTT GAC AAA GTG GTC GTT GAG	NM_001034034.2

Table 2 Effect of dietary protected fat on live body weight (LBW) and body condition score (BCS) of dairy cows during early postpartum period.

	Control	3% PF	5% PF
LBW at 15 DIM, kg	557.4 ± 38.13	560.0 ± 38.56	531.4 ± 39.94
LBW at 30 DIM, kg	530.6 ± 27.99	540.8 ± 39.65	536.4 ± 41.54
LBW at 45 DIM, kg	532.2 ± 23.86	554.4 ± 39.12	535.0 ± 39.10
LBW at 60 DIM, kg	529.0 ± 29.94	544.0 ± 35.66	539.2 ± 37.44
Overall change in LBW, kg	−28 ± 16.3^a	−16 ± 6.2^a	8 ± 7.6^b
Average change in LBW, g/d	−631 ± 361.5^a	−356 ± 137.9^a	173 ± 169.4^b
BCS at 15 DIM	3.3 ± 0.27	3.3 ± 0.18	3.1 ± 0.14
BCS at 30 DIM	2.9 ± 0.13	3.0 ± 0.20	3.1 ± 0.20
BCS at 45 DIM	2.8 ± 0.21	3.1 ± 0.17	3.1 ± 0.17
BCS at 60 DIM	2.7 ± 0.20	3 ± 0.14	3.2 ± 0.17
Overall change in BCS	−0.6 ± 0.12^a	−0.3 ± 0.08^b	0.1 ± 0.1^c

a-c, means with different superscripts are significantly different at P < 0.05. DIM, days in milk.

Table 3 Sex ratio of offspring produced from cows fed different experimental diets during the postpartum period.

Treatment group	Male (%)
Control	8/19 (42.1%)^a
PF 3%	14/20 (70%)^a,b
PF 5%	17/20 (85%)^b

Proportions with different superscripts are significantly different at P < 0.05.

Fig. 1 Agarose gel electrophoresis showing PCR products of GAPDH and SRY genes in genomic DNA extracted from E, embryo; M, liver of a bull; F: uterus; -ve, no template control. 100 bp ladder was also loaded for reference.

Table 4 Proportion of male and female embryos produced from COCs matured in the presence or absence of 50 µM of ALA, LA or CLA. The control group was supplemented with 0.05% DMSO equivalent to that used to dissolve fatty acids. P values are generated by comparing treatment group proportions to the expected sex ratio of 0.5.

	n	Female	Male	Male ratio	P value
Control	18	10	8	0.44	0.8
ALA	26	12	14	0.54	0.8
LA	42	9	33	0.79	0.001
CLA	31	9	22	0.71	0.03