ic absorbance

ic absorbance never of each sample was calculated by subtracting LTR Neu absorbance from that of NIH3T3 cells. Antibody titer was estimated as the highest immune serum dilution generating a specific absorbance of 0. 5 at 492 nm. Sera titer is the mean value of individual serum ti ters. Individual serum samples from mice receiving rV neuT were randomly chosen. Individual V wt mouse serum was assayed at 1 250 dilution. Immunoglobulin subclasses were determined by ELISA using a Mouse Typer Isotyping Kit using individual serum of rV neuT vaccinated mice as previously described. For immunoprecipitation, cells were lysed in RIPA buffer containing 1% Triton 100, 0. 5% deo icolate, 0. 1% SDS, 20 mM Tris pH 7. 5, 150 mM sodium chloride, proteases and phosphatases inhibitors.

Protein concentration was de termined using the Bradford protein assay. Equal amounts of total proteins were immunoprecipitated using sera derived from different ani mals immunized with rV neuT or V wt, and Protein G sepharose overnight at 4 C. The immunoprecipitates were washed three times with RIPA buffer, boiled at 95 C and centrifuged to remove sepharose beads. The immunopre cipitates were separated by SDS PAGE and transferred into nitrocellulose membrane. After blocking with 5% non fat milk, the membrane was incubated with polyclonal anti neu antibody C18. After washing, the membranes were incu bated with goat anti rabbit secondary antibody HRP conjugated. The antigen antibody binding was visualized by chemiluminescence using SuperSignal West Pico Chemilu minescent Substrate kit.

Biologic activity of vaccinated mouse immune sera in vitro Antibody dependent cellular cytoto icity was in vestigated as previously described. BALB neuT SALTO tumor cells were used as targets, while spleen cells from normal BALB c mice were used as effectors at 50 1. Dilutions of sera pooled from AV-951 four mice vaccinated with 108 pfu rV neuT or V wt were assayed. Percentage of specific lysis was calculated as described. The results represent average percentage of cytoto icity of two independent e periments. Four ran domly chosen serum samples were pooled each time and used for two independent e periments. For cell proliferation of BALB neuT SALTO tumor cells, immunoglobulins from 108 rV neuT and V wt pooled sera were purified by protein G and dialyzed against PBS. Purity was determined by SDS PAGE and Coomassie blue staining.

SALTO cells were incubated in serum free DMEM containing 0. 2% BSA containing Igs. Igs were replenished every 24 h. All treatments were performed in triplicate. Survival of cells was assessed by the Sulforhodamine B cell proliferation assay. The percent change in relative cell number nevertheless was calculated as described by Yip et al. To analyze the ability of serum antibodies to induce down regulation of ErbB2 Neu receptor on SALTO tumor cells, indirect immunofluorescence under native conditions was performed. Briefly, cells were detached by incubation with 0. 02% EDTA in PBS and incubated with purifi

atively regulates DFF45 e pression during apoptotic progression

atively regulates DFF45 e pression during apoptotic progression. Non malignant colon cells are not apparently affected by the ectopic e pression of miR 145, consistent with its high level of e pression in normal colon cells. Morphology of apoptosis detected by Hoechst staining One of Seliciclib Cdc2 the events in apoptosis is the condensation of nuclear chromatin. After being e posed to staurosporine for 12 h, the morphology of LS174T cells was investi gated by Hoechst 33528 dye staining and visualization under a fluorescent microscope. Hoechst dye binds to the AT rich regions of double stranded DNA and e hi bits enhanced fluorescence. Cells treated with the miR 145 mimic siDFF45 displayed the typical apoptotic nuclear morphology, whereas the nuclear morphology was intact and normal in the controls.

The percentage of cell death was calcu lated by counting the number of cells with condensed chromatin among the cells. Discussion Given the great importance of DFF45 in apoptotic net works, it is reasonable to propose that a proper e pres sion level of DFF45 will be required to achieve sensitivity to drug induced apoptosis, and that up or down regulation of DFF45 e pression might correlate with can cer aggression. Induction of DFF45 seems to be involved in the production of heterogenous subclones in human gastric cancer cells, and in their enhanced ability to avoid apoptosis. Hara et al. found that when DFF45 is overe pressed in human renal cell carcinoma cells, it ren ders them highly resistant to therapy induced apoptosis.

Additionally, thymocytes from DFF45 mutant mice e hibit neither DNA laddering nor chromatin con densation when e posed to apoptotic stimuli. DFF45 was e pressed preferably in low stage neuroblas toma tumors, and to a lesser degree in high stage neuro blastomas. However, the molecular mechanism resulting in aberrant e pression of human DFF45 in can cer cells is poorly understood. In this report, we show that DFF45 is a direct target for miR 145. Our studies indicated that Cilengitide the levels of mature miR 145 were significantly lower in colon cancer cells compared with their levels in normal colon cells. Antibody microarray and Western blotting analyses on suitably prepared cell e tracts showed that DFF45 levels in colon cancer cells far e ceed the levels e hibited by normal colon cells. There may have been a rela tionship between these differences in DFF45 levels and miR 145 levels.

Based on these results, we selected LS174T cells for further studies. Using a luciferase reporter system, we identified a putative binding site in the CDS of human DFF45 for miR 145. In LS174T cells, the miR 145 can negatively regulate DFF45 e selleck chemicals Abiraterone pression at the translational level. The importance of miR 145 in this response was confirmed by transfection of the miR 145 mimic into LS174T cells, and the restoration of DNA fragmentation or chromatin condensation to levels similar to that of normal colon cells. Further, on the basis of the modest protein silencing observed in these s

the cell cycle The Rpt6 protein has been found to associate with

the cell cycle. The Rpt6 protein has been found to associate with a number of activators Tipifarnib myeloid and to be localized on some promoters in mammals. In particular, Rpt6 has been localized on p21WAF1 promoter where it interacts with p53 after DNA damage. The knockdown of Rpt6 results in increased occupancy of the p21WAF1 promoter by p53 and increase transcription of the gene. Modulation of Ub proteasome genes by cisplatin We previously studied genome wide transcriptional pro files in S. pombe, demonstrating that cisplatin activates a stress response involving genes belonging to different pathways, includ ing Ub proteasome system. In such an analysis, the S. pombe wild type sensitive strain 972 h was exposed to a cytotoxic cisplatin concentration and modulation of gene expression was examined.

The group of transcripts at least two fold up regulated by cisplatin in this strain comprised a subset of transcripts belonging to the Ub proteasome pathway. Only three of them were found to be included in the present set of non essential deletion mutants. When we tested cisplatin sensitivity of these specific deletion mutants, we obtained IC50 values similar to that of the corresponding wild type parental strain. Among the induced transcripts, Lub1 attracted our attention because a precise and important role in DNA damage response has been recently ascribed to its corre sponding budding yeast homolog gene, DOA1 UFD3. In particular, DOA1 has been shown to help to control the DNA damage response by channelling Ub from the proteasomal degradation pathway into path ways that mediate altered DNA replication and chroma tin modification, thus acting in supplying Ub for the DNA damage response.

Elements of the DNA damage response that appear to rely on DOA1 include the ubi quitination of both PCNA and histone H2B. Indeed, DOA1 interacts with other factors involved in producing or maintaining ubiquitinated both PCNA and H2B, i. e. UBC13 and UBP10. Thus, such an observation suggests a link between three differ ent factors belonging to the Ub proteasome pathway identified in S. pombe with two different approaches, and possibly involved in cellular response to cisplatin. Moreover, the lack of cisplatin hypersensitivity observed in our Lub1 deletion mutant, may reflect the presence of redundant factors as sug gested by Lis and Romesberg.

Indeed, in budding yeast doa1 and ubi4 mutants share several pheno types including sensitivity to heat, canavanine and other DNA AV-951 damaging agents. In contrast, the budding yeast UBI4 deletion Fluoro Sorafenib mutant displays resistance to cisplatin together with other mutants of the protea some pathway including BUL1, UBP13, UFD4 and UMP1. Both UBI4 and DOA1 might supply Ub for the DNA damage response. Similarly, in fission yeast the corre sponding UBI4 homolog gene may replace Lub1 absence. Accordingly, Ubi4 gene expression resulted up regulated by cisplatin in our previous study, similarly to Lub1. As reported in Table 4, the human ortholog of S. pombe Lub1 and

namely, its highest activity was detected at 10 DAF, and its lowe

namely, its highest activity was detected at 10 DAF, and its lowest http://www.selleckchem.com/products/BAY-73-4506.html activity detected at 30 DAF. However, SuSy activity in CSSL50 1 was higher than that in Asominori at the 15 and 20 DAF. Similarly, at 15 DAF, AGPase, SBE and DBE activities were significantly higher in CSSL50 1 compared to those in Asominori. Additionally, enzyme activities of SuSy at 30 DAF and DBE at 5 DAF were found to be lower in CSSL50 1 than those in Asominori. These results indicate that 15 DAF is a critical time point for grain filling when many enzymes involved in starch synthesis exhibit maximum activities. We therefore used RNAs extracted from 15 DAF endo sperms for subsequent microarray analysis. Transcriptome analysis of 15 DAF caryopses of CSSL50 1 and Asominori To investigate the underlying molecular basis for chalky endosperm formation, we used Affymetrix GeneChips for a global transcriptome profiling analysis.

A total of 2295 transcripts were found to be differentially expressed between CSSL50 1 and Asominori with FDR 5% using the Significance Analy sis of Microarray software. Among these, 798 transcripts differ more than 1. 5 fold and 193 transcripts differ more than 2. 0 fold between Asominori and CSSL50 1. Fishers exact test showed that 10 functional terms in Biological Process and two Molecular Function terms were significantly enriched among these genes. Interesting categories that may be involved in rice endosperm development were carbohydrate meta bolism, response to stress, transcription, hydrolase activ ity, and oxidoreductase activity.

Gene Ontology annotation of the 193 transcripts with 2 fold change was listed in Additional file 3. Genes in carbohydrate metabolism includes glucose 6 phosphate isomerase, alpha amylase, and glycosyl hydrolases family 1, 16, and 17 proteins. Genes of the oxidoreductase activity group includes L ascorbate peroxidase 3, glu tathione S transferase, peroxidase Carfilzomib 64, and monodehy droascorbase reductase that are known to be involved in redox homeostasis. Transcription factors include genes encoding one Myb like DNA binding domain containing protein, two AP2 domain proteins, one homeobox domain protein and one GAF domain containing pro tein. The functions of a large number of genes were classified as primary metabolic process, including genes encoding a U box domain containing protein and an ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase that may be involved in protein degradation, several protein kinases for signaling transduction, two leucine rich repeat family proteins that may be associated with defense response.

These observations suggest that intricate a gene network may underlie the proper development of rice grain endosperms. To further improve sellckchem the stringency, we applied one way ANOVA analysis on the differentially expressed genes identified by SAM. This analysis identi fied 623 statistically differentially expression genes. Following the func tional categories given by GO and the bioinformatics tool JAFA, we manually classi fied t

only Validation of miRNA targets We report here that many target

only. Validation of miRNA targets We report here that many targets were captured by the degradome analysis, which provided experimental evidence to support previous computational selleck chem predic tions. Because of its polyploid genome, many soybean genes are present in multiple copies. As a result, some of the reads align to multiple members of the same gene family. To further confirm the degradome data for some of the family members, a RLM 5 RACE ex periment was performed to examine which family members were targeted by the miRNA for degradation. For gma miR160 in the cotyledon degradome library, we have identified five targets annotated as Auxin Response Factors. Four of the five, namely Glyma12g08110. 1, Glyma12g29720. 1, Glyma14g33730. 1 and Glyma11g20490.

1, were also verified by RLM 5RACE to be subjected to cleavage guided by gma miR160. GO analysis of miRNA target genes in soybean seed developmental stages The identified targets for miRNAs in the three cotyledon degradome libraries were classified by their gene ontol ogy using the AgriGO toolkit. Higher percentages of these targets were found to be involved in developmental, reproductive, and regulatory and metabolic processes with respect to their propor tions within the GO classification of all soybean cDNAs. The same general pattern is found for the targets pre dicted with the seed coats. The enrichment of the genes involved in developmental and regulatory processes may be consistent with the fact that the degradome libraries were constructed from different stages of developing soybean seeds.

For the developing seeds, it is of utmost important to accumulate proteins and lipids that are subsequently used as the source of energy and amino acids for the germinating seedling. The corresponding miRNAs may regulate the expression of these target genes during different seed developmen tal stages in soybean through affecting various transcrip tion factors that induce or shut off specific metabolic networks during the course of seed development. Interestingly, we identified more miRNA targets in the cotyledons of late seed maturation than earlier stages with a total of AV-951 92 different targets in the 300 400 desiccating, yellow seeds compared to 60 and 53 total in the early and mid maturation, immature green seed respectively. Discussion Regulation of gene expression by miRNAs has been comprehensively investigated in animals and plants.

In the case of higher plants, Arabidopsis and rice miRNA targets have been widely studied by high throughput sequencing. Soybean is a polyploid crop plant having a complex and large genome compared to Arabidopsis and rice. The number of iden tified miRNAs and their potential targets in soybean is limited. www.selleckchem.com/products/AG-014699.html To date, degradome sequencing has been reported for only one soybean tissue, namely the very young whole seed extracted 15 days after flowering from the cultivar Heinong44. In order to study the regu lation of gene expression during soybean seed develop ment, we constructed

,

, small molecule spleen and thymus were in cluded. In addition, other organs such as the liver, a multi functional organ with innate immune functions in mammals and poorly studied in fish, and the pyloric caeca, the target organ of the myxozoan parasite, which also plays a role in immunity, were included as well. Next generation pyrosequencing has become an im portant tool for transcriptomic studies, enabling the identification of new immune molecules that are expressed upon activation of the immune response. A remarkable recent example is the study of the liver transcriptome of orange spotted grouper after virus infection. It seems very likely that developments related to fish immunology will have a significant impact for obtaining a new generation of vaccines against diseases.

A disadvantage of turbot is that neither the genome nor the complete transcriptome are available yet and, therefore, important information about immunity and stress related genes and their expression is lacking. Many genes were identified previously in turbot using classical Sanger sequencing in response to A. salmonicida and P. dicentrarchi, Vibrio harveyi and nodavirus. However, the number of genes related to the immune system in this species remained low. Recently, Pereiro et al. used 454 pyrosequencing after different immune stimulations to provide a rich source of data to improve the knowledge of S. maximus immune transcriptome. Their results re vealed a large number of contigs and singletons with po tential immune function in turbot and identified many of the proteins involved in the main immune pathways in humans, showing the potential of pyrosequencing.

Al though our 454 run was not specifically from immune related tissues, after combining the Sanger and pyro sequencing data, a significant number of genes associated to essential functions directly or indirectly related to in nate and acquired immunity were detected in the Turbot 3 database. Most of the immune related sequences were derived exclusively from the 454 run and only 149 and 219 sequences from Sanger or mixed Sanger 454, respectively. We found several novel genes, including components or family members related to acute phase re sponse and inflammation, stress and or defense response and in the coagulation cascade. Many of the genes shown in the immune pathways presented by Pereiro Anacetrapib et al.

could be identified, but also some other important im mune genes were identified here for the first time in turbot, a selection of which is shown in Table 5. Relevant examples include DFF40 subunit, a substrate for caspase 3, which triggers DNA fragmentation during apoptosis, BCL XL, an anti apoptotic protein, TRAF2, which regu lates activation of NF kappa B and JNK, kinase inhibitor ARQ197 playing a central role in the regulation of cell survival and apoptosis, TRAF6, which mediates signaling from members of the TNF receptor superfamily as well as the TOLL IL 1 family, IRAK1, which plays a critical role in initiating innate im mune response against foreign p


“The understanding of the structural and thermal propertie


“The understanding of the structural and thermal properties of membranes, low-dimensional flexible systems in a space of higher dimension, is pursued in many fields from string theory to chemistry and biology, The case of a two-dimensional (2D) membrane in three dimensions is the relevant one for dealing with real materials. unlike Traditionally, membranes are primarily discussed In the context of biological membranes and soft matter in general. The complexity of these systems hindered a realistic description of their Interatomic structures based on a truly microscopic approach. Therefore, theories of membranes were developed mostly within phenomenological models. From the point of view of statistical mechanics, membranes at finite temperature are systems governed by interacting long-range fluctuations.

Graphene, the first truly two-dimensional system consisting of just one layer of carbon atoms, provides a model system for the development of a microscopic description of membranes. In the same way that geneticists have used Drosophila as a gateway to probe more complex questions, theoretical chemists and physicists can use graphene as a simple model membrane to study both phenomenological theories and experiments. In this Account, we review key results in the microscopic theory of structural and thermal properties of graphene and compare them with the predictions of phenomenological theories. The two approaches are in good agreement for the various scaling properties of correlation functions of atomic displacements.

However, some other properties, such as the temperature dependence of the bending rigidity, cannot be understood based on phenomenological approaches. We also consider graphene at very high temperature and compare the results with existing models for two-dimensional melting. The melting of graphene presents a different scenario, and we describe that process as the decomposition of the graphene layer into entangled carbon chains.”
“Because of its atomic thickness, excellent properties, and widespread applications, graphene is regarded as one of the most promising candidate materials for nanoelectronics. The wider use of graphene will require processes Brefeldin_A that produce this material in a controllable manner. In this Account, we focus kinase inhibitor Wortmannin on our recent studies of the controllable chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of graphene, especially few-layer graphene (FIG), and the applications of this material in electronic devices.

CVD provides various means of control over the morphologies of the produced graph ene.

In addition, GSH also reduced the posttranslational modification

In addition, GSH also reduced the posttranslational modification of FOXA2. The levels of nitrosylated FOXA2 decreased sig nificantly by 40% and 76% www.selleckchem.com/products/CHIR-258.html in the presence of 0. 4 mM and 1 mM GSH, respectively. Collectively, these results suggest that higher levels of antioxidants in airway epithelial cells can reduce posttranslational modifi cation and inactivation of FOXA2 mediated by PCN generated ROS RNS. Furthermore, antioxidant treatment may enhance the expression of FOXA2. GSH treatment relieves the suppression of FOXA2 and represses mucin production induced by PCN Because the epithelial cells treated with GSH overcome the repression of FOXA2 expression and reduce post translational modification by PCN, we postulated that restored FOXA2 in turn, could inhibit the expression of MUC5AC and MUC5B mucins in the NCI H292 cells.

Western blot analyses showed that in the absence of GSH, PCN reduced the expression of FOXA2 by 50%, with corresponding 5 fold increase in MUC5AC and MUC5B expression. Addition of GSH significantly increased the expression of FOXA2, with cor responding decrease in the expression of MUC5AC and MUC5B mucins. Restored expression of FoxA2 is also associated with repression of MUC5AC and MUC5B transcription. Collectively, these results suggest that GSH effectively neutralizes PCN toxicity, restoring FOXA2 function, which in turn, may re press the transcription of MUC5AC and MUC5B genes as well as the expression of both mucins in airway epithelial cells. Discussion PCN is a redox active virulence factor of PA.

We have pre viously shown that PCN inhibits the expression of FOXA2 through the activation of pro GCHM signaling pathway Stat6 and EGFR. In this study, we demonstrate PCN generated ROS RNS causes posttranslational modifi cations nitrosylation, acetylation, and Batimastat ubiquitination of FOXA2, resulting in degradation of the transcriptional repressor of GCHM. Furthermore, FOXA2 modified by PCN generated ROS RNS has reduced binding capacity to the promoter of the MUC5B gene. The loss of FOXA2 ex pression is positively correlated to derepression of MUC5AC and MUC5B transcripts, as well as the overexpression of both mucins. Importantly, the antioxidant GSH neutralizes PCN mediated toxicity and reduces the nitrosylation and suppression of FOXA2 by PCN generated ROS RNS. Res toration of FOXA2 expression is positively correlated to the repression of both MUC5AC and MUC5B genes and mu cins.

Collectively, these results suggest that posttranslational modification and inactivation of FOXA2 induced by PCN generated ROS RNS may also contribute to GCHM and mucus hypersecretion. There has been a free copy continual debate as to the import ance of PCN to the pathogenesis of diseases in human airways, especially in CF. This is primarily because of conflicting levels of PCN that were recovered within a limited number of sputum samples from CF and non CF bronchiectatic patients.

How ever, it was later reported in Kyse 410 cells There are conf

How ever, it was later reported in Kyse 410 cells. There are conflicting reports about whether this mutated p53 protein forms tetramers, binds DNA, induces apoptosis and transactivates target genes or not. It seems that p53 with this mutation is partially functional depending on the experimental either conditions. In our case, this mutated p53 protein was clearly detectable in immuno blot analysis and displayed a strong nuclear staining in most, but not all Kyse 410 cells by indirect immunofluorescence. OE33 cells had a point mutation in exon 5, which is consistent with previous reports. This mutation abolishes the p53 transacti vation activity as well as growth suppressive activity of the mutated protein and has a dominant negative effect on wild type p53.

Accordingly, this mutated p53 protein was still expressed and accumulated in OE33 cell nuclei, although in some cells to a weaker extent. OE19 cells exhibited a mutation in exon 9, which is in accordance with mutation databases. This mutation is within the flexible linker, which connects the p53 core domain with the tetramerization domain, causes a stop codon within the tetramerization domain and most likely inac tivates p53 oligomerization. However, the latter is insufficient to fully abolish p53 tumor suppres sive function and p53 monomer mutants with retention of transcriptional activity have been described. In OE19 cells, this potentially still functional mutated p53 protein was strongly expressed as truncated protein at 40 kDa in immunoblot analysis and clearly accumulated in OE19 cell nuclei.

Thus, loss of function p53 mutations may result in escape of post mitotic G1 cell cycle control and possibly also centrosomal dysfunction in some, but not all esophageal cancer cells. Discussion This study addressed Aurora kinases A and B, p53 mutations and occurrence of multipolar mitoses in aneuploid esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and Barretts adenocarcinoma cell lines. Amplification of 20q13 and or Aurora A has been reported to occur frequently in human esophageal carci nomas by extract based methods, such as comparative genomic hybridization. The present study confirms the importance of this chromo somal region in ESCC and BAC, but our precise single cell FISH analyses of each two ESCC and BAC cell lines suggests that high level Dacomitinib Aurora A gene amplification is a rather rare event in esophageal cancer cells.

A clear cut Aurora A gene amplification was only seen in Kyse 410 cells, as described before, whilst all other investi gated cell lines had increased Aurora A gene copy num bers due to chromosome 20 polysomy. Moreover, elevated Aurora A gene copy numbers may not necessa rily result in elevated Aurora A mRNA and or protein expression, as exemplified till by our results of OE21 and OE19 cells. Also, Aurora A gene copy numbers are far from a direct link to activated Aurora A protein levels.

Thus, while the incorporation of information from the SNP50 chip

Thus, while the incorporation of information from the SNP50 chip increased reliability of DPR by 17% in Holsteins, this improvement was one of the lowest of the 12 traits examined. One possible way to improve the accuracy of genomic estimates of fertility is to incorporate thenthereby SNPs for specific genes involved in reproduction into SNP panels. The bo vine genome contains over 20,000 genes, and over 14,000 of those do not contain a single SNP on the BovineSNP50 chip. Incorporation of candidate gene SNPs into genomic tests for reproduction would allow selection of causative SNPs or SNPs physically more close to causative SNPs. Such an approach has been suc cessful for improving ability to detect genomic associa tions with disease. Many genes have been associated with reproduction in the dairy cow.

Among these are SNPs related to in vitro fertilization or development, such as STAT5A, FGF2 and PGR DPR, sire conception rate including STAT5A, FGF2, and ITGB5, calving interval, superovulation response, twinning rate and incidence of still birth. In beef cattle, SNPs related to reproductive Dacomitinib function include those in HSPA1A, associated with calving rate, and PAPPA2, associated with calving interval. The previously mentioned SNPs only represent a small portion of the genes involved in reproductive processes. Recent studies have revealed genes whose expression in tissues or cells of importance to reproduction vary with reproductive status, these genes are candidates for containing SNPs that impact fertility.

For example, genes were identified that were differentially regulated in the brain of cows displaying strong estrus compared to those displaying weak estrus, in the endometrium of heifers which produced viable embryos compared to those which produced non viable embryos, and in biopsies from embryos that selleck chemical Gefitinib resulted in live calves as compared to embryos that died following embryo trans fer. Genetic variants in the genes differentially expressed in the aforementioned studies and others may be responsible for differences in fertility among animals. The goal of the current study was to identify SNPs in candidate genes affecting reproductive processes. The approach was to evaluate effectiveness of SNPs in candi date genes for explaining genetic variation in DPR. Three types of SNPs were evaluated, SNPs previously reported to be associated with reproductive traits of dairy or beef cattle or physically close to genetic markers for reproduction, SNPs in genes that are well known to be involved in reproductive processes, and SNPs in genes reported to be differentially expressed between physiological conditions in a variety of tissues associated in reproductive function. As an additional goal, SNPs were also evaluated for their relationship to other traits.