The impact of Origanum Vulgare essential oil supplementation on sperm motility and subpopulation alterations in bulls, dogs, and rabbits.

Artificial insemination is a widely adopted method in livestock production for various reasons such as health security and genetic improvement. Although sperm motility is of paramount importance in this technique as it directly influences the sperm's ability to fertilize the oocyte. In previous research on human sperm, we observed that in vitro supplementation with Origanum Vulgare essential oil significantly improved sperm motility and antioxidant activities, all without negatively affecting the integrity of their DNA. Based on these promising results, we considered it crucial to explore the potential effects of supplementation with this essential oil on sperm of other species. In this study, we studied the effects of oregano essential oil supplementation on sperm motility of (bulls = 15) (dogs = 15) and (rabbits = 9) and the changes that in vitro incubation with this oil could induce on sub-motile sperm populations of different species. The results of the study showed that in vitro oregano essential oil supplementation had a significant impact on sperm motility in the three species studied. This improvement in sperm motility was accompanied by an increase in the proportion of subpopulations with high velocity and progressivity: an increase of (2.16%, 10% and 4.84%) for subpopulation 1, (6.50%, 5.5% and 3.17%) for subpopulation 4 in bulls, dogs and rabbits respectively. While the subpopulations representing low motile and non-progressive sperm have decreased. These results suggest that the use of oregano essential oil can be a beneficial approach to improve sperm motility in different species, which can have important implications for the success of artificial insemination.

Comparison and Validation of Ichthyoplankton DNA Extraction Methods.

Ichthyoplankton is the cluster of planktonic organisms that consists of fish eggs and larvae. These planktonic stages belong to the temporary zooplankton, representing future exploitable stocks. The study of the early ontogenesis of fish plays a key role in the understanding and evaluation of these populations through the study of their abundance and their spatio-temporal distribution. To better understand and protect these fisheries resources, it is essential to identify the different stages of fish embryonic development. This identification is usually performed using the classical method, based on morphological criteria under a binocular magnifying glass; however, this methodology is not always sufficient and is time consuming and, therefore, it is necessary to rely increasingly on molecular tools. The major problem with these tools is the yield and quality of the nucleic acids extracted from ichthyoplankton, especially in the case of eggs, which are small. Several methods have been used for DNA extraction from ichthyoplankton, either automated or manual, but very often from larvae or adults. In the present work, five fish egg DNA extraction protocols were compared based on their DNA yield and extraction quality, verified by agarose gel electrophoresis and quantitative PCR amplification. The results showed that extraction by our heat-protocol for direct PCR (Hp-dPCR) presents the simplest and cheapest protocol of all the kits used in this study, providing a sufficient quantity and quality of nucleic acids to be used for PCR amplification, and being within the reach of third world laboratories that often do not have sufficiently large budgets to obtain automated kits.