Ball, Barry A

Barry A Ball – AG – Veterinary Sciences

The Ball lab studies the physiology of equine reproduction, with emphases on a wide range of topics including endocrine control of the estrous cycle and pregnancy, regulation of normal and abnormal pregnancies and factors controlling fertility in the mare and stallion. Experiments are performed on both the molecular and whole-animal scale. Recent work has focused on the miRNA expression profile throughout normal gestation, the miRNA and mRNA profiles of the endometrium (uterus) and chorioallantois (placenta) during placental infection and the transcriptome of the early conceptus and how it relates to maternal recognition of pregnancy.

mRNA Expression in the Endometrium and Chorioallantois During Placentitis

Analyze differential expression of both annotated and unannotated mRNAs in the endometrium and chorioallantois during placental inflammation (placentitis) using a dataset generated by RNA-seq. The project lead is Dr. Barry Ball (professor in Veterinary Science), while the data analysis will primarily be performed by Dr. Shavahn Loux (postdoc in Veterinary Science).

Collaborators:

We are also collaborating with Dr. Theodore Kalbfleisch from the University of Louisville, who will be providing guidance on the data processing.

Software:

This project will primarily rely on open-source software such as BWA, SAMtools, cufflinks and other similar software.

Cutadapt (https://code.google.com/p/cutadapt/)
BWA (http://bio-bwa.sourceforge.net/)
SAMtools (http://samtools.sourceforge.net/)
Picard(http://picard.sourceforge.net/)
Cufflinks (http://cole-trapnell-lab.github.io/cufflinks/)

miRNA Expression in the Chorioallantois and Serum Throughout Gestation in the Mare

This project aims to evaluate the expression of miRNAs in the placenta (chorioallantois) and circulation (serum) of mares at various stages of pregnancy and the estrous cycle. The project lead is Dr. Barry Ball (professor in Veterinary Science), and the data analysis will be primarily performed by Dr. Shavahn Loux (postdoc in Veterinary Science), along with Dr. Theodore Kalbfleisch.

Software:

This project will rely on open-source software including miRDeep2, ViennaRNA and Randfold.

Students

Loux, Shavahn - Postdoc
Linhares Boakari, Yatta - Grad

Hossam Elsayed

Activities

miRDeep2(https://www.mdc-berlin.de/8551903/en/research/research_teams/systems_biology_of_gene_regulatory_elements/projects/miRDeep)
ViennaRNA (http://www.tbi.univie.ac.at/RNA/) Randfold
http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/supplementary_data/erbon/nov2003/

Publications:

2016 - 2019

Dini P, Kalbfleisch T, Daels P, Carossino M, El-Sheikh Ali H, Loux SC, Esteller-Vico A, Scoggin KE, Ball BA. Monoallelic gene expression; a closer look at reciprocal paternal and maternal gene interaction in equine placenta. Genome Res (submitted) 2019.
Dini P, Norris J, El-Sheikh Ali H, Loux SC, Carossino M, Esteller-Vico A, Bailey E, Kalbfleisch T, Daels P, Ball BA. Landscape of overlapping gene expression in the equine chorioallantois. Genes 2019, 10, 503; doi:10.3390/genes10070503.
Boakari YL, El-Sheikh Ali H, Dini P, Loux SC, Fernandes CB, Scoggin KE, Esteller-Vico A, Lawrence L, Ball BA. A high protein model alters the endometrial transcriptome of mares. Genes (accepted with revisions) 2019.
Loux SC, Dini P, El-Sheikh Ali H, Kalbfleisch T, Ball BA. Characterization of the placental transcriptome through mid-late gestation in the mare. Placenta (In draft) 2019.
Loux SC, Fernandes CB, Dini P, Wang K, Wu X, Baxter D, Troedsson MH, Squires EL, Ball BA. Small RNA expression in the chorioallantois, endometrium and serum of mares following experimental induction of placentitis. Rep Fertil Devel 31:1144-1156, 2019.