University of Sassari 4 articles published in JoVE Developmental Biology Vitrification of In Vitro Matured Oocytes Collected from Adult and Prepubertal Ovaries in Sheep Sara Succu1, Elisa Serra1, Sergio Gadau1, Antonio Varcasia1, Fiammetta Berlinguer1 1Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari The protocol aims at providing a standard method for the vitrification of adult and juvenile sheep oocytes. It includes all the steps from the preparation of the in vitro maturation media to the post-warming culture. Oocytes are vitrified at the MII stage using Cryotop to ensure the minimum essential volume. Biology A Two-Step Strategy that Combines Epigenetic Modification and Biomechanical Cues to Generate Mammalian Pluripotent Cells Georgia Pennarossa1, Sergio Ledda2, Sharon Arcuri1, Fulvio Gandolfi3, Tiziana A. L. Brevini1 1Laboratory of Biomedical Embryology, Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety and Center for Stem Cell Research, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, 3Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Production, Landscape, Agroenergy and Center for Stem Cell Research, Università degli Studi di Milano We here present a method that combines the use of chemical epigenetic erasing with mechanosensing-related cues to efficiently generate mammalian pluripotent cells, without the need of gene transfection or retroviral vectors. This strategy is, therefore, promising for translational medicine and represents a notable advancement in stem cell organoid technology. Biology Comprehensive Workflow for the Genome-wide Identification and Expression Meta-analysis of the ATL E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Gene Family in Grapevine Pietro Ariani*1, Elodie Vandelle*1, Darren Wong2, Alejandro Giorgetti1, Andrea Porceddu3, Salvatore Camiolo3, Annalisa Polverari1 1Dipartimento di Biotecnologie, Università degli Studi di Verona, 2Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, 3Dipartimento di Agraria, SACEG, Università degli Studi di Sassari This article describes the procedure for the identification and characterization of a gene family in grapevine applied to the family of Arabidopsis Tóxicos in Levadura (ATL) E3 ubiquitin ligases. Behavior Behavioral Disturbances: An Innovative Approach to Monitor the Modulatory Effects of a Nutraceutical Diet Alessandro Di Cerbo*1, Sara Sechi*2, Sergio Canello3, Gianandrea Guidetti3, Filippo Fiore2, Raffaella Cocco2 1School of Specialization in Clinical Biochemistry, “G. d’Annunzio” University, 2Department of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology and Veterinary Clinic Section, University of Sassari, 3Research and Development Department, Forza10 USA Corp. We report a simple approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific diet in positively modulating the daily activity and clinical and behavioral symptoms of dogs with evident behavioral disturbances.