PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yufeng Qin
AU  - Tao Tang
AU  - Wei Li
AU  - Zhiguo Liu
AU  - Xiaoliang Yang
AU  - Xuan Shi
AU  - Guanjie Sun
AU  - Xiaofeng Liu
AU  - Min Wang
AU  - Xinyu Liang
AU  - Peiqing Cong
AU  - Delin Mo
AU  - Xiaohong Liu
AU  - Yaosheng Chen
AU  - Zuyong He
TI  - Essential role of Bone morphogenetic protein 15 in porcine ovarian and follicular development and ovulation
AID  - 10.1101/724096
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 724096
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/08/02/724096.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/08/02/724096.full
AB  - Bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) is a multifunctional oocyte-specific secreted factor. It controls female fertility and follicular development in both species-specific and dosage-sensitive manners. Previous studies found that BMP15 played a critical role on follicular development and ovulation rate of mono-ovulatory mammalian species, but has minimal impact on poly-ovulatory mice. However, whether this is true in non-rodent poly-ovulatory species need to be validated. To investigate this question, we generated a BMP15 knockdown pig model. We found that BMP15 knockdown gilts showed markedly reduced fertility accompanied with phenotype of dysplastic ovaries containing significantly declined number of follicles, increased number of abnormal follicles, and abnormally enlarged antral follicles resulting in disordered ovulation. Molecular and transcriptome analysis revealed that knockdown of BMP15 significantly suppressed cell proliferation, differentiation, Fshr expression, leading to premature luteinization and reduced estradiol production in GCs, and simultaneously decreased the quality and meiotic maturation of oocyte. Our results provide in vivo evidences for the essential role of BMP15 in porcine ovarian and follicular development, and new insight into the complicated regulatory function of BMP15 in female fertility of poly-ovulatory species.