{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T16:37:56Z","timestamp":1778863076468,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,4]],"date-time":"2024-01-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1704326400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Guangdong Key Research and Development Project","award":["2021B0707010007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021B0707010007"]}]},{"name":"Guangdong Key Research and Development Project","award":["2018B030313011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018B030313011"]}]},{"name":"Guangdong Key Research and Development Project","award":["2023B10564001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023B10564001"]}]},{"name":"Double first-class discipline promotion project","award":["2021B0707010007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021B0707010007"]}]},{"name":"Double first-class discipline promotion project","award":["2018B030313011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018B030313011"]}]},{"name":"Double first-class discipline promotion project","award":["2023B10564001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023B10564001"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Gender control technologies are promising for enhancing the production efficiency of the farm animal industry, and preventing sex-linked hereditary diseases in humans. It has been shown that the X sperm of mammalian animals specifically expresses X-chromosome-derived toll-like receptor 7\/8 (TLR7\/8), and the activation of TLR7\/8 on the X sperm by their agonist, R848, can separate X and Y sperm via the specific inhibition of X sperm motility. The use of R848-preselected sperm for fertilization resulted in sex-ratio-skewed embryos or offspring. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether two other TLR7\/8 ligands, double-stranded RNA-40 (dsRNA-40) and double-stranded RNA-DR (dsRNA-DR), are also effective in the separation of mouse X and Y sperm and the subsequent generation of gender-ratio-skewed in vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos. Our results indicated that cholesterol modification significantly enhances the transfection of dsRNA-40 and dsRNA-DR into sperm cells. dsRNA-40 and dsRNA-DR incubation with mouse sperm could separate X and Y sperm by the specific suppression of X sperm motility by decreasing its ATP level and mitochondrial activity. The use of a dsRNA-40- or dsRNA-DR-preselected upper layer of sperm, which predominantly contains high-motility Y sperm, for IVF caused a male-biased sex ratio shift in resulting embryos (with 65.90\u201374.93% of embryos being male). This study develops a simple new method for the efficient separation of mammalian X and Y sperm, enabling the selective production of male or female progenies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules29010262","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,4]],"date-time":"2024-01-04T04:05:38Z","timestamp":1704341138000},"page":"262","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Gender Control of Mouse Embryos by Activation of TLR7\/8 on X Sperm via Ligands dsRNA-40 and dsRNA-DR"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"29","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-9239-6306","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yunfei","family":"Hou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jingfeng","family":"Peng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6554-7918","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Linjun","family":"Hong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhenfang","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Enqin","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zicong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock and Poultry Breeding Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"},{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"320","DOI":"10.1016\/j.theriogenology.2011.08.003","article-title":"Effects of Sex Control and Twinning on Economic Optimization of Culling Cows in Japanese Black Cow-Calf Production Systems","volume":"77","author":"Oishi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Theriogenology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, X., Li, J., Chen, S., Yang, N., and Zheng, J. 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