Semen and oocyte collection, sperm cryopreservation and IVF with the threatened North American giant salamander

McGinnity, Dale; Reinsch, Sherri; Schwartz, Heather Coarsey; Trudeau, Vance L.; Browne, Robert K.

doi:10.1071/rd21035

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In amphibians, AF has been conducted in a growing number of threatened and near threatened species, including the Albanian water frog ( Pelophylax shqipericus ) [ 28 ], Axolotl ( Ambystoma mexicanum ) [ 29 ], Balkan water frog ( Pelophylax kurtmuelleri ) [ 30 ], brown toadlet ( Pseudophryne bibronii ) [ 31 , 32 ], dusky gopher frog ( Lithobates sevosa ) [ 33 , 34 , 35 ], green and golden bell frog ( Litoria aurea ) [ 36 ], hellbender ( Cryptobranchus alleganiensis ) [ 37 ], Puerto Rican crested toad ( Peltophryne lemur ) [ 38 ], Southern corroboree frog ( Pseudophryne corroboree ) [ 39 ], and Wyoming toad ( Anaxyrus baxteri ) [ 40 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Increasing Role of Short-Term Sperm Storage and Cryopreservation in Conserving Threatened Amphibian Species

Anastas

Byrne

O’Brien

et al. 2023

Animals

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Multidisciplinary approaches to conserve threatened species are required to curb biodiversity loss. Globally, amphibians are facing the most severe declines of any vertebrate class. In response, conservation breeding programs have been established in a growing number of amphibian species as a safeguard against further extinction. One of the main challenges to the long-term success of conservation breeding programs is the maintenance of genetic diversity, which, if lost, poses threats to the viability and adaptive potential of at-risk populations. Integrating reproductive technologies into conservation breeding programs can greatly assist genetic management and facilitate genetic exchange between captive and wild populations, as well as reinvigorate genetic diversity from expired genotypes. The generation of offspring produced via assisted fertilisation using frozen–thawed sperm has been achieved in a small but growing number of amphibian species and is poised to be a valuable tool for the genetic management of many more threatened species globally. This review discusses the role of sperm storage in amphibian conservation, presents the state of current technologies for the short-term cold storage and cryopreservation of amphibian sperm, and discusses the generation of cryo-derived offspring.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Increasing Role of Short-Term Sperm Storage and Cryopreservation in Conserving Threatened Amphibian Species

Anastas

Byrne

O’Brien

et al. 2023

Animals

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“…GnRH was intramuscularly administered to other caudate species, sperm concentrations ranged from 0.3 to 58.0 x 10 6 sperm/mL (sharp-ribbed newt [39]; eastern hellbender [40]; black-spotted newt [19]; Kweichow newt [19]). While sperm concentration is influenced by species, hormone dose and type, time of collection, and route of administration, the average sperm concentrations produced by both tiger and arboreal salamanders from oral GnRH administration falls within a similar range compared to other caudate species given intramuscular injections.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral administration of GnRH via a cricket vehicle stimulates spermiation in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum)

Chen

Kouba

et al. 2023

Preprint

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More than 50% of caudates are threatened with extinction and are in need ofex-situbreeding programs to support conservation efforts and species recovery. Unfortunately, many salamander populations under human care can experience reproductive failure, primarily due to missing environmental cues necessary for breeding. Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are a useful suite of techniques for overcoming or bypassing these missing environmental cues to promote breeding. Exogenous hormones are used to stimulate natural breeding behaviors or gamete expression forin-vitrofertilization or biobanking and are typically administered intramuscularly in caudates. While effective, intramuscular injection is risky to perform in smaller-bodied animals, resulting in health and welfare risks. This research investigated the spermiation response to hormone administration through a non-invasive oral route using the tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) as a model species. Male salamanders were randomly rotated six weeks apart through four treatments (n = 11 males/treatment) in which animals received a resolving dose of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) as follows: (1) Prime-Only (0.0 µg/g); (2) Low (0.25 µg/g); (3) Medium (1.0 µg/g); and (4) High (2.0 µg/g). All males were given a GnRH priming dose (0.25 µg/g) 24 hours prior to the resolving dose. Exogenous hormone was delivered inside of a cricket (Gryllodes sigillatus) that was presented as a food item by tweezers. Sperm samples were collected at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 hours after the resolving dose and analyzed for quantity and quality. For all treatments, sperm concentration was produced in an episodic pattern over time. The Prime-Only treatment had a lower (p < 0.05) percent of sperm exhibiting normal morphology compared to treatments utilizing a resolving dose of GnRH. Overall, oral administration of GnRH is a feasible route of inducing spermiation in salamanders, yielding sperm of sufficient quantity and quality forin-vitrofertilization and biobanking efforts.

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“…For example, in amphibians there are now many examples of stored sperm (cryopreserved, but also sperm held for periods without cryopreservation) resulting in the production of live offspring. In this special issue there are five papers reporting the production of live progeny in anurans (Arregui et al 2022a;Kaurova et al 2021;Silla and Byrne 2021;Upton et al 2021) and caudates (McGinnity et al 2022). The advent of an increasing number of caudate species from which progeny have been produced with ARTS (see also Kouba 2022) is of particular note, including with frozen sperm as reported by McGinnity et al (2022) in this issue.…”

Section: Amphibiansmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In this special issue there are five papers reporting the production of live progeny in anurans (Arregui et al 2022a;Kaurova et al 2021;Silla and Byrne 2021;Upton et al 2021) and caudates (McGinnity et al 2022). The advent of an increasing number of caudate species from which progeny have been produced with ARTS (see also Kouba 2022) is of particular note, including with frozen sperm as reported by McGinnity et al (2022) in this issue. There are also another four research papers that refine our understanding of the underpinning reproductive processes supporting these reproductive technologies including endocrinology and ovarian senescence (Jacobs et al 2021), DNA integrity of induced urinic sperm (Arregui et al 2022b), effect of over-wintering history on spermiation (Kouba et al 2022), the challenges of inducing sperm release in the unique leiopelmatids of New Zealand (Germano et al 2022) and finally one that modelled the econonomic and genetic benefits of utilising biobanking in amphibian captive breeding and conservation programmes (Howell et al 2021b).…”

Section: Amphibiansmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This two-part special issue of RFD highlights the ongoing refinements and extension of protocols for amphibian biobanking, gamete induction, and artificial fertilisation, whilst recognising some applications remain challenging and indicate the need to persist with research. The generation of live progeny for externally fertilising caudates using cryopreserved sperm (McGinnity et al 2022) is one of those important achievements, an important step forward since the Clulow and Clulow (2016) review. Improving the knowledge of the reproductive biology of target species (such as the mountain yellow-legged frog, (Jacobs et al 2021) with expanded use of technologies, including ultrasound for ovarian assessments and facilitated application of analysis of steroids for rapid assessment of reproductive condition, will facilitate improved protocols.…”

Section: Amphibiansmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Common goals, different stages: the state of the ARTs for reptile and amphibian conservation

Clulow

Marcec-Greaves

et al. 2022

Reprod. Fertil. Dev.

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Amphibians and reptiles are highly threatened vertebrate taxa with large numbers of species threatened with extinction. With so many species at risk, conservation requires the efficient and cost-effective application of all the tools available so that as many species as possible are assisted. Biobanking of genetic material in genetic resource banks (GRBs) in combination with assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) to retrieve live animals from stored materials are two powerful, complementary tools in the conservation toolbox for arresting and reversing biodiversity decline for both amphibians and reptiles. However, the degree of development of the ARTs and cryopreservation technologies differ markedly between these two groups. These differences are explained in part by different perceptions of the taxa, but also to differing reproductive anatomy and biology between the amphibians and reptiles. Artificial fertilisation with cryopreserved sperm is becoming a more widely developed and utilised technology for amphibians. However, in contrast, artificial insemination with production of live progeny has been reported in few reptiles, and while sperm have been successfully cryopreserved, there are still no reports of the production of live offspring generated from cryopreserved sperm. In both amphibians and reptiles, a focus on sperm cryopreservation and artificial fertilisation or artificial insemination has been at the expense of the development and application of more advanced technologies such as cryopreservation of the female germline and embryonic genome, or the use of sophisticated stem cell/primordial germ cell cryopreservation and transplantation approaches. This review accompanies the publication of ten papers on amphibians and twelve papers on reptiles reporting advances in ARTs and biobanking for the herpetological taxa.

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Semen and oocyte collection, sperm cryopreservation and IVF with the threatened North American giant salamander

Cited by 14 publications

References 19 publications

The Increasing Role of Short-Term Sperm Storage and Cryopreservation in Conserving Threatened Amphibian Species

The Increasing Role of Short-Term Sperm Storage and Cryopreservation in Conserving Threatened Amphibian Species

Oral administration of GnRH via a cricket vehicle stimulates spermiation in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum)

Common goals, different stages: the state of the ARTs for reptile and amphibian conservation

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