Rossana Capoferri

Istituto Sperimentale Italiano Lazzaro Spallanzani · Molecular genetics laboratory

Single- and group-housed pregnant sows were assessed during 8 weeks (4th and 8th to 14th) with regard to physiological, reproductive, welfare indicators and gene expression profiling. Compared to single-housed sows, group-housed sows had decreased non-return to estrus at 56 days after artificial insemination (AI) (83% vs 92%) and farrowing rate (78...

The Bolognese is an ancient breed originating from the North of Italy belonging to the Bichon family group. In 2017, the Italian Bolognese population counted 3291 males and 3305 females for a total of 6596 living animals, while the subpopulation that generated offspring was composed of 1022 living animals. The Bolognese is a rather healthy breed wi...

Johne’s disease is a chronic granulomatous enteritis caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratubercolosis (MAP) which affects ruminants worldwide and has a significant economic impact. MAP has also been associated with human Crohn’s disease, although this connection is not well established. MAP is highly adapted for survival within host macrophage...

The possibility of using genetic control strategies to increase disease resistance to infectious diseases relies on the identification of markers to include in the breeding plans. Possible incomplete exposure of mastitis-free (control) animals, however, is a major issue to find relevant markers in genetic association studies for infectious diseases...

Background S. aureus is one of the main pathogens responsible for the intra-mammary infection in dairy ruminants. Although much work has been carried out to understand the complex physiological and cellular events that occur in the mammary gland in response to S. aureus, the protective mechanisms are still poorly understood. The objectives of the p...

Background and aim: resveratrol (RSV), is a stilbene-based compound exerting wide biological properties. Its analogue 4,4'-dihydroxy-trans-stilbene (DHS) has shown improved bioavailability and antiproliferative activity in vitro and in vivo. One of the hypotheses on how resveratrol works is based on SIRT1 activation. Since their strict structural s...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of DNA metabarcoding, by rbcl as barcode marker, to identify and classify the small traces of plant DNA isolated from raw milk used to produce Grana Padano (GP) cheese. GP is one of the most popular Italian PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) produced in Italy in accordance with the GP PDO specifi...

Mastitis represents one of the major economic and health threats to the livestock sector associated with reduction in milk quality, loss of production and is a major reason for culling. Somatic cell score (SCS) is used as a criterion in breeding programmes to select cows genetically less susceptible to mastitis. The relevance of SCS as a predictor...

In order to implement effective use of microalgae as an innovative biological process for bioremediation, the most accurate characterization and monitoring of biocenosis is fundamental to define the most interesting options. Accordingly, metagenome sequencing currently is the method of choice to obtain insights into community composition. Here, we...

In the last years the concern of consumer about food safety is increased, so in the European Union great value is placed on accurate and safe animal identification; breeding plan, disease monitoring, and food safety depend heavily on conventional animal identification. For this reason, the protection of the integrity of these programs from fraud or...

Animal welfare, particularly in pig, is a constraint for animal breeding. In this regard the Italian D.Lgs 53/2004 established that from 2013 sows and gilts shall be kept in groups during the four weeks after the service to one week before the expected farrowing time. Although its relevance is conceptually and extensively recognised, animal welfare...

BACKGROUND: Bovine Amyloidotic Spongiform Encephalopathy (BASE) is a variant of classical BSE that affects cows and can be transmitted to primates and mice. BASE is biochemically different from BSE and shares some molecular and histo-pathological features with the MV2 sub-type of human sporadic Creutzfeld Jakob Disease (sCJD). RESULTS: The present...

Animal welfare, and particularly in pig, is a constraint for animal breeding. In this regard the Italian D.Lgs 53/2004 established that from 2013 sows and gilts shall be kept in groups during the four weeks after the service to one week before the expected farrowing time. Although its relevance is conceptually and extensively recognised, animal wel...

The aim of this study was to establish whether perturbed gene expression during cumulus oocyte development causes repeat breeding in cattle. In this study, a repeat breeder was defined as a normal estrous cycling animal that did not become pregnant after three inseminations despite the absence of clinically detectable reproductive disorders. Transc...

Advances in high-throughput sequencing technology have facilitated rapid and cost-efficient generation of gigabases of data by laboratories. This has led to new approaches for simultaneous discovery and genotyping of dense genetic markers on a scale that represents a step change from the state of the art prior to this technology. One such approach...

List of the differentially expressed genes between T4 and T0 in milk samples. Data were extracted and loaded into R software using the Limma analysis package from Bioconductor and the signal intensities were processed and normalized using standard procedures. Genes were considered as differentially expressed if p value < 0.01 and log2 fold change >...

List of the differentially expressed genes between T5 and T0 in milk samples. Data were extracted and loaded into R software using the Limma analysis package from Bioconductor and the signal intensities were processed and normalized using standard procedures. Genes were considered as differentially expressed if p value < 0.01 and log2 fold change >...

Most significant affected IPA canonical pathways. The most significant pathways are: MIF-mediated Glucocorticoid Regulation, MIF Regulation of Innate Immunity, NF-kB Signalling, IL-10 Signalling and Hypoxia Signalling in Cardiovascular System for T4 and Production of Nitric Oxide and Reactive Oxygen Species in Macrophages, LXR/RXR Activation, Toll-...

Significativity of the differential cell counts analysis calculated for each group of goat (HSCS and LSCS) at different time points. (XLS 25 kb)

Oligonucleotide sequences and results for milk samples q-PCR. The sequences of the couples of primers are listed in the table with q-PCR results.

Role of pattern recognition receptors in recognition of bacteria and viruses pathway. Canonical pathway performed with IPA Knowledge Base.

Oligonucleotide sequences and results for blood samples q-PCR. The sequences of the couples of primers are listed in the table with q-PCR results.

In the absence of breeding strategy, natural spawning constitutes the breeding ground for fish farmers to empirically manage their commercial broodstock. In this context, we used six microsatellite markers to characterize the genetic pattern of six commercial seabream broodfish tanks having a common history spanning four generations. The progeny of...

Bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE) is one of the recently discovered atypical forms of BSE, which is transmissible to primates, and may be the bovine equivalent of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) in humans. Although it is transmissible, it is unknown whether BASE is acquired through infection or arises spontaneously. In th...

Results of comparative haplotype analysis with different combinations. The first table includes both htSNP 449 and indel 23; whereas the following tables include either htSNP 449 or indel 23. (0.16 MB RTF)

PRNP htSNPs and indel frequencies within family BSE and case animals. (0.16 MB RTF)

Classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is an acquired prion disease of cattle. The bovine prion gene (PRNP) contains regions of both high and low linkage disequilibrium (LD) that appear to be conserved across Bos taurus populations. The region of high LD, which spans the promoter and part of intron 2, contains polymorphic loci that have b...

Bovine Amyloidotic Spongiform Encephalopathy (BASE) is a recently discovered atypical form of BSE, transmissible to primates, and has been proposed as an equivalent of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease in man. Although transmissible, it is unknown whether BASE is acquired through infection or arises spontaneously. In the present study, the gene ex...

In the dairy industry worldwide, reproductive disorders are a major cause of economic losses, whereas in recent decades a declined fertility associated with increased milk production have been widely reported. Fertility failures have multifactorial origin: environment, nutrition, management practices and pathologies. However, to some fertility prob...

Six commercial seabream broodstocks and a progeny derived from a single-day mass-spawning event were analysed with regards to the populations genetic structure, parentage inference and genetic parameters using panels of 6 to 9 microsatellites. The Fst analysis revealed a difference between only two broodstocks caused by a unique locus departure fro...

Since January 2002, the European Union has adopted precise guidelines aimed at protecting the safety of meat and controlling the production chain. To this purpose, the conventional traceability of livestock and meat represents the main tool, but verification of traceability requires genetic support. At present, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs...

Selective animal breeding is the main tool for a relative rapid improvement of economically important traits but one of the difficulties, especially in aquaculture, is obtaining and maintaining pedigree information. The approaches to determine parental assignment in aquacultural stocks are based on the use of different tanks in which each progeny i...

Since January 2002, the European Union has adopted precise guidelines aimed to the safety of the meat and the control of the productive chain. To this purpose, the ordinary traceability represents the main tool but, in order to be verified, it requires a genetic support. In this paper it is proposed a new protocol based on Real-Time PCR for genotyp...

At present, SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polimorphisms) represent the most innovative molecular markers in genotyping studies. The aim of this work was to evaluate wich SNPs showed interesting allelic and genotype frequencies in order to estabilish a SNPs panel of high quality to be used in genotypizatio n pro grams on large scale. Hair samples were tak...