Abstract: An embryo quality evaluation assistance system including an image pickup unit for picking up an image of the embryo, and a computer that communicates data with the embryo observing apparatus to assist quality evaluation of the embryo. The computer includes a time-series image storing unit that stores a time-series image picked up by the embryo observing apparatus, an embryo image extracting unit that extracts an embryo image from the time-series image, and an active site extracting unit that compares an embryo image based on a first time-series image with an embryo image based on a second time-series image picked up before or after a predetermined time from a pickup time of the first time-series image, and extracts as an active site a set of pixels when the difference between pixel values of corresponding pixels of the first and second time-series images is larger than a predetermined threshold value.

Abstract: The present invention has an object to provide a method of determining fatty acid composition in intramuscular fat on the basis of bovine genotype, in particular a method of simply determining an amount of an oleic acid content with a high degree of accuracy, and a method of objectively determining the goodness of eating quality of beef on the basis of the results of the determination. The present invention provides a method of determining an amount of fatty acid content in bovine intramuscular fat on the basis of the genotype of fatty acid synthase determined by determining base <1> and/or base <2> described below, and a method of determining whether cattles are those from which beef with an excellent eating quality is obtained on the basis of the results thereof. <1> A 16,024th base corresponding to a polymorphic site which is either adenine (A) or guanine (G) in a base sequence represented by SEQ ID NO. 1 of a sequence list.

Abstract: The novel means by which an efficiency of ovum collection can be easily determined in bovine at gene level is disclosed. The present inventors performed the genomic linkage analysis using bovine populations with high and low efficiency of ovum collection and to identify GRIA1 gene, which encodes an ion channel protein, as a factor deeply related to an efficiency of ovum collection. Bovines having a mutation (e.g. the amino acid substitution of aa306) in GRIA1 produce significantly fewer ova on superovulatory treatment than those not having the mutation. Therefore, the efficiency of ovum collection can be determined based on the existence of a mutation in GRIA1 gene.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a culture dish appropriate for automatically identifying cultured cells. The present invention relates to a culture dish for culturing cells that require separate control, which has a bottom wall and a side wall, wherein cell-holding parts having wells are arranged on the bottom wall, 4 or more wells are adjacent to each other, the wall surface of each well has a concave surface that slopes upward from the lowest position to the outer edge of the well, and the pitch between adjacent wells is 1 mm or less.

Abstract: An embryo quality evaluation assistance system including an image pickup unit for picking up an image of the embryo, and a computer that communicates data with the embryo observing apparatus to assist quality evaluation of the embryo. The computer includes a time-series image storing unit that stores a time-series image picked up by the embryo observing apparatus, an embryo image extracting unit that extracts an embryo image from the time-series image, and an active site extracting unit that compares an embryo image based on a first time-series image with an embryo image based on a second time-series image picked up before or after a predetermined time from a pickup time of the first time-series image, and extracts as an active site a set of pixels when the difference between pixel values of corresponding pixels of the first and second time-series images is larger than a predetermined threshold value.

Abstract: For stably and efficiently producing cloned livestock, used is a uniform cultured cell strain as a donor cell for nuclear transplantation.