Sex-Sorting Mammalian Sperm: Concept to Application in Animals

Sperm sexing can be used to produce sexed offspring with 85%-95% accuracy (Amann, 1999; Johnson and Seidel, 1999; Seidel et al 1999a). On September 1, 2000, the sale of sexed bovine sperm commented in the United Kingdom. It will be interesting to see to what degree sexed sperm penetrate the semen market. This verified sexed product sets the stage for commercialization around the world in major animal producing countries. This commercialization of sexed sperm occurred nearly 20 years after technology for accurately determining the proportion of X and Y sperm in semen was first developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It came about due to advances in both the hardware and the software componenets of computer science, biophysic, cell biology and applied reproductive physiology plus efforts of innovative scientist. Many individuals have contributed in making semen sexing in animals a commercial reality since the research team of Bart Gledhill, Dan Pinkel, Duane Garner, Susan Lake, and Larry Johnson began following up on the first flow cytometric studies on human sperm by Friedrich Otto, Wolfgang Göhde, and Marvin Meistrich. There was also major input from personnel at USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center as well as scientists at Cambridge University, Atlantic Breeders Cooperative, Colorado State University and XY Inc. These include Chuck Allen, Rupert Amann, David Cran, Patrick Doyle, Mike Evans, Lisa Herickhoff, Mervyn Jacobson, Kehuan Lu, Chris Polge, Wim Rens, John Schenk, George Seidel, Glenn Welch, and many others.