ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Anim. Sci.
Sec. Animal Physiology and Management
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fanim.2025.1665783
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainably Improving Fertility for Animal ProductionView all 3 articles
A multi-omics approach identifies candidate biomarkers predictive of boar cryotolerance and conception rate
Provisionally accepted
- 1Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Bellsville, United States
- 2AcuFast, Breese, United States
- 3Metabolite Profiling Facility, Bindley Bioscience Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, United States
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The swine industry underutilizes cryopreserved boar semen due to poor post-thaw viability and variable fertility outcomes. Current semen evaluation methods are retrospective and insufficient for selecting cryotolerant and fertile sires. In this study, lipidomic and metabolomic analysis using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) profiling was applied to fresh and post-thaw ejaculates from 16 commercial Duroc boars with known conception rates (CR) supported single-sire matings to identify candidate biomarkers predictive of field CR, post-thaw motility loss, and observe if CR markers identified in fresh semen persist post-thaw. Boars were classified by their cryotolerance delta score (CDS) which was calculated as the absolute motility change between arrival to the cryopreservation laboratory and post-thaw relative to the average loss in motility (low vs. high) and field CR (low: 75– 79%, mid: 80–89%, high: 90–95%). Distinct lipid and metabolite profiles were associated with each phenotype revealing 20 candidate markers with an AUC ≥ 0.800 (P<0.05). Those predictive of higher post-thaw motility loss included compounds that produced MRMs tentatively attributed to saturated long-chain fatty acids, and elevated metabolites like kynurenine (AUC = 0.905). MRMs predictive of <80% CR were attributed to elevated guanosine (AUC=850) and olealdehyde (AUC = 0.815), whereas >80% CR had a higher abundance of TG(45:4) (AUC = 0.967) and creatine (AUC = 0.800). Candidate markers for CR were distinct from those associated with motility loss and remained detectable in post-thaw samples. These findings demonstrate that CR and post-thaw motility loss are governed by independent molecular traits and support the development of a multidimensional biomarker-based screening strategy that promotes fertility post-thaw. This approach could enable AI centers to improve boar selection and enhance cryopreservation outcomes, ultimately increasing the utility of frozen semen in swine breeding programs.
Keywords: Boar1, cryopreservation2, Lipidome3, Biomarker4, metabolome5
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 14 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mills, Minton, Berndtson, Willenburg and Ferreira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kayla Mills, kayla.mills@usda.gov
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