| Beef and milk production industries represent the largest agricultural industries in the United States with a retail equivalent value of approximately ;The results of my dissertation established the methods that provide afoundation for high-throughput proteomics approaches of bovine oocyte and cumuluscell biology and allowed me to model the intricate cross communication between oocyte and cumulus cells using systems biology approaches. Proteomics based systems biology modeling of oocytes and cumulus cells identified the signaling pathways and proteins associated with this communication that may have implications in oocyte maturation. In addition, systems biology modeling of differential spermatozoa proteomes from bulls of varying fertility rates enabled the identification of putative molecular markers and key pathways associated with male fertility. The ultimate positive impact of these results is to facilitate the field of biomedical research with useful information for comparative biology, better understanding of bovine oocyte and spermatozoon development, infertility, biomarker discovery, and eventually development of therapies to treat infertility in bovine as well as humans.;Keywords: Bovine fertility, bovine oocytes and spermatozoa, Gene Ontology, proteomics, GO annotation quality, systems biology... |
