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Biotech in the School of Agriculture:
More than a Sheep Named Dolly

With the help of a $68,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the College of Agriculture is working to prepare its students for the latest industry innovations of the century, i.e., biotechnology. The USDA grant, matched by equipment and related resources from the Applied Agriculture Research Initiative, will bring new resources to the college that will upgrade current course offerings in both plant and animal science. Project Director Cindy Daley, assistant professor of Integrated Animal Systems, hopes the USDA grant "Systematic Integration of Biotechnology into Agriculture Curricula" will enhance the curriculum by addressing the variety of techniques currently used by the agricultural industry. This will better prepare students for a rapidly evolving workplace. Pat Delwiche, the department's plant pathologist, co-wrote the proposal with Daley and will co-direct the project.

The project will primarily fund laboratory equipment required for "hands on" laboratory exercises and molecular research. It will enable the development of a research-based curriculum and better prepare students for various opportunities within the agriculture biotechnology sector, an industry that is now experiencing a 55 percent rate of growth annually.

"The purpose is not to generate 'gene jockeys,'" Daley stressed. "The goal is to familiarize our students with the technology as it applies to agriculture so that they can make informed choices about the products they use and the commodities they produce."

Acknowledging that biotechnology typically conjures up images of cloning sheep, Daley explained that biotechnology is actually defined more broadly.

"Unfortunately, the press seems to exclusively define biotechnology with a picture of Dolly, at the expense of all other technologies that have done so much to improve our standard of living."

Biotechnology is considered to include a broad range of tools that utilize biological organisms, primarily microorganisms, as well as select plants and animals, that are designed to benefit society, according to Daley. These tools include gene probes for early disease diagnosis or marker-assisted selection in livestock breeding, and transfection technology to mass produce specific vaccines or proteins, such as insulin, to treat or prevent disease. In addition, biotechnology is about cleaner ecosystems, for it offers new methods for cleaning up environmental contamination, such as oil spills or soil contamination.

Daley also received a USDA grant in the fall of 1998 that focused on the effect of stress on early embryo survival in cows. Results from this research provided the foundation for a follow-up study conducted by undergraduate Sadie Smith, a recipient of the Summer Research and Creativity Award. Under the direction of Daley, Smith has been culturing bovine embryos in a medium designed specifically for embryo development. Smith will be determining if cortisol -- one of the many hormones released during stress -- is responsible for the response seen in Daley's earlier experiments with sheep. Daley said the resulting data from these experiments may have implications for a variety of species with similar stress-response mechanisms.

The culture system treatments include a control group, in which embryos are exposed only to culture media and should continue to develop and produce interferon-tau, a protein produced by developing embryos to communicate the pregnancy to the body and allow its continuation. Other treatments include a dose response to cortisol, where similar embryos will be exposed to increasing concentrations of cortisol within the culture media. Daley and Smith will later determine the amount of interferon-tau produced in the presence and absence of cortisol.

Daley said the data already collected indicates that moderate stress, such as working the sheep through a foot bath and minor handling, can reduce pregnancy rates by 50 percent when this activity occurs during the first three weeks of pregnancy. During this crucial period, the embryo communicates with the lining of the uterus so that the body maintains high progesterone levels for a successful pregnancy.

However, during times of stress, cortisol may short-circuit this communication by inhibiting the production of interferon-tau coming from the embryo. If this occurs, Daley said, the animal's body does not recognize the pregnancy and will move onto the next estrous cycle (or menstrual cycle in the case of primates and humans). This experiment, expected to be finished by the end of this year, will determine if cortisol is indeed the culprit directly related to embryo loss.

Other experiments underway include undergraduate Allison Adams' work with the use of polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) to determine the sex of seven-day-old embryos prior to transfer to their surrogate host. PCR is a technique that amplifies a specific region of DNA on the chromosome of interest. Daley said, "In this case, we amplify a region on the Y chromosome that is specific to male offspring, the SRY region. Since females are XX, they do not have a SRY region and no DNA is amplified (or replicated)."

This happens during the amplification or replication phase, where short segments of DNA, called primers, bind specifically to the SRY region of the Y chromosome and produce millions of copies of this region during the PCR process. If the cells contain DNA from a male embryo, the primers can bind and DNA will be amplified. Following PCR, samples are run on a gel, stained, and visualized under an ultra-violet light.

Adams is currently working with the micromanipulator, a device that holds the embryo for biopsy. The biopsy, or sample of cells, is needed from the developing embryo for PCR analysis. This technology is currently being integrated into Animal Science 123, Reproductive Physiology of Domesticated Species, as a component of the USDA Challenge Grant.

Daley's own experiences in the agriculture field began during her childhood. Her parents are fifth-generation farmers from the Midwest, descendants of early German immigrants that came to the United States around 1850. They are part of a small family-based operation, typical of the region, and grow wheat, field corn, sweet corn, and soybeans, and operate a cattle-feeding facility with a 500-head capacity. Obviously influenced by her agronomic heritage, Daley studied agriculture at the University of Illinois and later completed a Master's of Science at CSU, Fresno, where she met her husband, Dave, who also teaches within the CSU, Chico College of Agriculture. Cindy went on to complete her doctorate at the University of California at Davis, where she produced three journal articles on the effects of stress on reproductive hormone production. -- RL