{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,4]],"date-time":"2026-10-04T10:50:29Z","timestamp":1791111029865,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]],"date-time":"2025-12-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765411200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Study on the Mechanism of IGFBP-2 in Promoting Preimplantation Embryonic Cell Proliferation","award":["TDZKBS202517"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TDZKBS202517"]}]},{"name":"Research on key technology of beef cattle in southern Xinjiang","award":["S2020BB287"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["S2020BB287"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China \u201cStudy on the Molecular Mechanism of Bovine SRY Gene Promoting the Proliferation and Differentiation of Male Cleavage Embryos\u201d","award":["31660657"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31660657"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Genes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The developmental differences between female and male early embryos regarding sex development remain a topic of controversy. Objectives: This study aims to investigate whether there are significant developmental differences between female and male bovine embryos during in vivo development. Methods: The CIDR + FSH + PGF2\u03b1 + GnRH method was employed to induce superovulation in 20 donor cows. Subsequently, artificial insemination was performed on the donor cows using high-purity X and Y frozen semen, with 10 cows receiving each type of semen. Seven days later, the embryos were flushed from the donor cows. The flushed embryos underwent embryonic sex determination, followed by immunofluorescence analysis to observe proliferation and apoptosis, and finally, RT-PCR was conducted to detect genes associated with proliferation and apoptosis. Results: The results indicated that the sex ratio of embryos obtained through artificial insemination using X\/Y semen did not significantly differ based on semen purity (p \u2265 0.05). However, the fluorescence intensity of apoptotic cells in the X-BL group was significantly higher than that in the Y-BL group (p &lt; 0.05). Conversely, the fluorescence intensity of proliferating cells in the X-BL group was significantly lower than that in the Y-BL group (p &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, the expression levels of apoptosis-related genes in the X-BL group were significantly higher compared to the Y-BL group (p &lt; 0.05), while the expression levels of proliferation-related genes in the X-BL group were significantly lower than those in the Y-BL group (p &lt; 0.01). Conclusions: The above results indicate that during in vivo development of bovine early embryos, male embryos develop at a faster rate than female embryos.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/genes16121485","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]],"date-time":"2025-12-11T14:30:17Z","timestamp":1765463417000},"page":"1485","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Study on the Developmental Differences Between Female and Male Early Embryos in Cattle In Vivo"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Jie","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tarim Animal Husbandry Science and Technology, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, Alar 843300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fei","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tarim Animal Husbandry Science and Technology, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, Alar 843300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Di","family":"Fang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tarim Animal Husbandry Science and Technology, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, Alar 843300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tarim Animal Husbandry Science and Technology, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, Alar 843300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jie-Ru","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qing-Hua","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tarim Animal Husbandry Science and Technology, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, Alar 843300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1186\/s40659-022-00386-2","article-title":"Sperm DNA damage compromises embryo development, but not oocyte fertilisation in pigs","volume":"55","author":"Otero","year":"2022","journal-title":"Biol. Res."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Heras-Molina, A., Pesantez, J.L., Astiz, S., Garcia-Contreras, C., Vazquez-Gomez, M., Isabel, B., Ovilo, C., and Gonzalez-Bulnes, A. (2020). The Role of Offspring Genotype-By-Sex Interactions, Independently of Environmental Cues, on the Phenotype Traits of an Obese Swine Model. Biology, 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/biology9120445"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"264","DOI":"10.1152\/physiolgenomics.00234.2007","article-title":"Epigenetic differences between male and female bovine blastocysts produced in vitro","volume":"32","author":"Rizos","year":"2008","journal-title":"Physiol. Genom."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rabaglino, M.B., O\u2019Doherty, A., Bojsen-Moller, S.J., Lonergan, P., Hyttel, P., Fair, T., and Kadarmideen, H.N. (2021). Application of multi-omics data integration and machine learning approaches to identify epigenetic and transcriptomic differences between in vitro and in vivo produced bovine embryos. PLoS ONE, 16.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0252096"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"451","DOI":"10.1262\/jrd.2016-032","article-title":"Sex-sorting of spermatozoa affects developmental competence of in vitro fertilized oocytes in a bull-dependent manner","volume":"62","author":"Abe","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Reprod. Develop."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.1016\/j.theriogenology.2020.12.001","article-title":"Developmental kinetics and viability of bovine embryos produced in vitro with sexsorted semen","volume":"161","author":"Magata","year":"2020","journal-title":"Theriogenology"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"156","DOI":"10.1016\/j.anireprosci.2018.11.006","article-title":"In vitro production of sex preselected cattle embryos using a monoclonal antibody raised against bull sperm epitopes","volume":"205","author":"Chowdhury","year":"2019","journal-title":"Anim. Reprod. Sci."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"887","DOI":"10.1292\/jvms.64.887","article-title":"Different factors affect developmental competence and cryotolerance in in vitro produced bovine embryo","volume":"64","author":"Imai","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. Vet. Med. Sci."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e92142","DOI":"10.1172\/jci.insight.92142","article-title":"Sexual dimorphism in glioma glycolysis underlies sex differences in survival","volume":"2","author":"Ippolito","year":"2017","journal-title":"JCI Insight"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tagirov, M., and Rutkowska, J. (2014). Sexual Dimorphism in the Early Embryogenesis in Zebra Finches. PLoS ONE, 9.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0114625"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"520","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fertnstert.2010.04.003","article-title":"The relationship between blastocyst morphology, chromosomal abnormality, and embryo gender","volume":"95","author":"Alfarawati","year":"2011","journal-title":"Fertil. Steril."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"618","DOI":"10.1093\/biolre\/ioy229","article-title":"Is differences in embryo morphokinetic development significantly associated with human embryo sex?","volume":"100","author":"Huang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Biol. Reprod."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sidrat, T., Kong, R., Khan, A.A., Idrees, M., Xu, L., Sheikh, M.E., Joo, M.D., Lee, K.L., and Kong, I.K. (2019). Difference in Developmental Kinetics of Y-Specific Monoclonal Antibody Sorted Male and Female In Vitro Produced Bovine Embryos. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 21.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms21010244"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1007\/s10815-021-02387-8","article-title":"Sex ratio imbalance following blastocyst transfer is associated with ICSI but not with IVF: An analysis of 14,892 single embryo transfer cycles","volume":"39","author":"Cai","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Assist. Reprod. Genet."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"460","DOI":"10.1016\/S1472-6483(10)61999-2","article-title":"Selection for faster development does not bias sex ratios resulting from blastocyst embryo transfer","volume":"12","author":"Richter","year":"2006","journal-title":"Reprod. Biomed. Online"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1302","DOI":"10.1016\/j.fertnstert.2008.07.1784","article-title":"Blastocyst transfer does not cause a sex-ratio imbalance","volume":"92","author":"Weston","year":"2009","journal-title":"Fertil. Steril."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"123","DOI":"10.1186\/s13578-025-01459-x","article-title":"Sex-biased transcriptome in in vitro produced bovine early embryos","volume":"15","author":"Shi","year":"2025","journal-title":"Cell Biosci."},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"204","article-title":"Effects of Different Sources of FSH, Injection Methods, Embryo Collection Methods and Seasons on the Superovulation Response in Belgian Blue Cattle","volume":"43","author":"Huang","year":"2023","journal-title":"Pak. Vet. J."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"344","article-title":"Evaluation and classification of bovine embryos","volume":"10","author":"Mapletoft","year":"2013","journal-title":"Anim. Reprod."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"31","DOI":"10.1002\/mrd.22278","article-title":"Rapidly cleaving bovine two-cell embryos have better developmental potential and a distinctive mRNA pattern","volume":"81","author":"Dufort","year":"2014","journal-title":"Mol. Reprod. Dev."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"440","DOI":"10.1016\/j.stem.2012.02.016","article-title":"Distinct lineage specification roles for NANOG, OCT4, and SOX2 in human embryonic stem cells","volume":"10","author":"Wang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Cell Stem Cell"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"470","DOI":"10.1038\/nature10807","article-title":"Control of ground-state pluripotency by allelic regulation of Nanog","volume":"483","author":"Miyanari","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"360","DOI":"10.1038\/nature12632","article-title":"Nanog, Pou5f1 and SoxB1 activate zygotic gene expression during the maternal-to-zygotic transition","volume":"503","author":"Lee","year":"2013","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, J.R., Huang, F., Niu, P., Cheng, H., Qu, H.M., Li, X.P., Wang, X.Y., Wang, J., Suo, J.J., and Fang, D. (2025). Comparison of Superovulated Embryo Quality in Simmental Cattle Inseminated with 0\u00b0C\u2014Refrigerated and Liquid Nitrogen-Frozen Semen. Biology, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/biology14060658"},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"418","article-title":"Extracellular magnetic labeling of biomimetic hydrogel-induced human mesenchymal stem cell spheroids with ferumoxytol for MRI tracking","volume":"19","author":"Yan","year":"2022","journal-title":"Bioact. Mater."}],"container-title":["Genes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4425\/16\/12\/1485\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]],"date-time":"2025-12-11T14:36:09Z","timestamp":1765463769000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4425\/16\/12\/1485"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]]},"references-count":25,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["genes16121485"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/genes16121485","relation":{},"ISSN":["2073-4425"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2073-4425","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]]}}}