Oviduct organoids to study the embryo-maternal dialog and develop strategies to alleviate climate change impact on cattle breeding – ORGALOG

To advance the understanding of the early embryo-maternal dialog is a major task in cattle breeding since up to 40% of embryo mortality occur during the first 7 days of pregnancy. This represents a significant economic loss for dairy and beef industry. In the context of global climate change, early embryo losses are expected to increase as embryos are very sensitive to heat stress conditions. To unravel the fundamental embryo-maternal interactions leading to successful pregnancy, an approach combining for the first time oviduct organoids and derived extracellular vesicles is proposed. The extracellular vesicles will be used as effectors of key maternal molecules to improve the survival and quality of bovine embryos under heat stress. The project brings together two complementary partners with expertise in oviduct physiology and proteomics (INRAE, France), and in functional reproductive genomics (UZH, Switzerland). The knowledge generated by the ORGALOG project will allow the development of strategies to prevent or mitigate the impact of heat stress on the fertility of cows and to adapt assisted reproductive technologies used in breeding and cryobanking programs.