ARGININE AND CREATINE KINASE: KEY ROLES IN CONCEPTUS DEVELOPMENT

There are three (3) goals for the research using sheep and pigs are to determine: 1) temporal and cell specific expression of arginine:glycine amidinotransferase (AGAT) that forms guanidinoacetate; guanidinoacetate N-methyltransferase (GAMT) that methylates guanidinoacetate using S-adenosyl methionine as the methyl donor to produce creatine; and creatine kinase (CK) that phosphorylates creatine to yield (CrP) in conceptuses and uterine endometria; 2) if GAMT is the rate limiting enzyme with respect to generation of PCr required for development of pig and sheep conceptuses by knocking down translation of GAMT mRNA; and if dietary supplementation of pregnant gilts with creatine influences growth and development of placentae (weight and length), fetuses (weight and crown rump length), and numbers of primary muscle fibers and secondary muscle fibers, respectively, in fetal pigs at Day 60 and Day 90 of gestation.