A 9-year-old atactic breeding stallion was trained to ejaculate, with only manual stimulation, while standing on the ground. Ejaculates obtained yielded fertile semen with morphologic and motility characteristics within the range for normal stallions. This method extended the breeding life of a stallion unable to mount a live or dummy mare or to ejaculate into an artificial vagina while standin...

licorice, the oldest chinese traditional medicine, is widely used in the treatment of human diseases. due to the deficiency of wild resource, selecting and breeding becomes a key issue to expanding the supply of licorice. spaceflight technology will become a new method for medicinal plants. the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of spaceflight on the components and anti-inflammator...

The aim of this study was to elucidate the regulatory role of androgen in the follicular development of wild female ground squirrels. Immunohistochemical staining of FSHR, LHR, P450c17, P450arom, androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptors (ERa and ERb) were executed in ovaries of female ground squirrels from both breeding and nonbreeding seasons. In addition, total ovarian proteins were extract...

Long-distance migrants may be particularly vulnerable to climate change on both wintering and breeding grounds. However, the relative importance of climatic variables at different stages of the annual cycle is poorly understood, even in well-studied Palaearctic migrant species. Using a national dataset spanning 46 years, we investigate the impact of wintering ground precipitation and breeding g...

As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological requirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary from below freezing to over 45°C in alpine and arctic habitats. Species breeding in these environmen...

Aerial surveys are often used to quantify sizes of waterbird colonies; however, these surveys would benefit from a better understanding of associated biases. We compared estimates of breeding pairs of waterbirds, in colonies across southern Louisiana, USA, made from the ground, fixed-wing aircraft, and a helicopter. We used a marked-subsample method for ground-counting colonies to obtain estima...

The platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) system is expressed and can exert its biological role in the male reproductive system including the maintenance of morphological structure and function of the epididymis. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between the PDGF system and seasonal changes in morphology of the wild ground squirrel epididymis during the breeding and nonbreed...

The ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) plays an important role in normal ovarian physiology. During each reproductive cycle, the OSE takes part in the cyclical ovulatory ruptures and repair. The aim of this study was to investigate the immunolocalization of nerve growth factor (NGF) and its receptors, tyrosine kinase A (TrkA) and p75, in the OSE cells of the wild ground squirrels during the breed...