Abstract
Sex of early bovine embryos was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplified DNA using double primer (Y-specific DNA primer BOV97M, 157 bp; Bα-Lactalbumin primer in male and female, 109 bp). The sex determination accuracy of biopsied half embryo (20-30 blastomere) and 1/3 biopsied embryo (10-15 blastomere) by PCR method with BOV97M primer were 100% and 96.4% respectively, in accordance with chromosome analysis. In addition, double primer of BOV97M and Bα-Lactalbumin were used for DNA amplification for PCR. Detection rate of embryonic DNA was 95.2-100% with 8-16 cells, 72.0-83.3% with 2-4 cells, respectively. The result showed that the detection rate of embryonic DNA of 2-4 cells was significantly lower than that of 8-16 cells (P<0.05). It suggested that using of Bα-Lactalbumin primer is necessary and the effective number of blastomere was conjectured about 10-15 cells for sex determination with double primer by PCR method.
