Avian Semen Collection by Cloacal Massage and Isolation of DNA from Sperm

Collection of semen may be useful for a wide range of applications including studies involving sperm quality, sperm telomere dynamics, and epigenetics. Birds are widely used subjects in biological research and are ideal for studies involving repeated sperm samples. However, few resources are current...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of visualized experiments no. 132
Main Authors Kucera, Aurelia C., Heidinger, Britt J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States MyJove Corporation 05.02.2018
Subjects
Animals
Birds
Carpodacus mexicanus
cloaca
Columba livia
Developmental Biology
DNA
epigenetics
Male
males
massage
Passer domesticus
semen
Semen - cytology
Semen - metabolism
sperm quality
Spermatozoa - metabolism
Spizella passerina
telomeres
Turdus migratorius
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Collection of semen may be useful for a wide range of applications including studies involving sperm quality, sperm telomere dynamics, and epigenetics. Birds are widely used subjects in biological research and are ideal for studies involving repeated sperm samples. However, few resources are currently available for those wishing to learn how to collect and extract DNA from avian sperm. Here we describe cloacal massage, a gentle, non-invasive manual technique for collecting avian sperm. Although this technique is established in the literature, it can be difficult to learn from the available descriptions. We also provide information for extracting DNA from avian semen using a commercial extraction kit with modifications. Cloacal massage can be easily used on any small- to medium-sized male bird in reproductive condition. Following collection, the semen can be used immediately for motility assays, or frozen for DNA extraction following the protocol described herein. This extraction protocol was refined for avian sperm and has been successfully used on samples collected from several passerine species (Passer domesticus, Spizella passerina, Haemorhous mexicanus, and Turdus migratorius) and one columbid (Columba livia).
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Undefined-3
Correspondence to: Aurelia C. Kucera at aurelia.kucera@ndsu.edu
ISSN:1940-087X
1940-087X
DOI:10.3791/55324