Transcriptomic response of bovine oviductal organoids to thermal stress.

The mammalian oviduct is a complex, fibromuscular organ known for its role in orchestrating a series of timely and dynamic changes to suitably support early embryogenesis. Establishing successful reproductive outcomes are largely determined through effective and cohesive communication systems between the transient embryo and the maternal environment. Climate change-induced, Heat stress (HS), is one of the largest single stressors compromising reproductive function. Systemic changes in the redox status of the maternal environment, adversely affect fertilization and early embryonic development, negative causation of HS. Oviductal organoids represent a 3-dimensional, biomimetic model to study the physiological impact of HS on the physiology of the oviduct and the subsequent developing embryo. In this study, we aimed to generate a robust bovine oviductal organoid culture system to decrypt the oviducts' differential transcriptomic response to HS, to elucidate the impact of thermal stress on oviductal physiology with subsequent potential impacts on early embryo development. The proposed research utilized the bovine species as a large animal model to study the transcriptomic chnags in oviductal organoids as a response to thermal stress. Bovine reproductive tissues, readily obtained from a local slaughterhouse were utilized to establish a BOEC organoids to study the physiology of the oviduct under HS. Oviductal organoids were cultured under normal (37 °C) or heat stress (42 °C) conditions and then used for RNA isolation and sequencing.