Scatter Brained

Once again, my apologies for missing a post here or there this week. Pardon my French, but it's been one bitch of a week. I didn't have a lot of work to do, most of my homework was easier than usual, and I only had one exam- but I haven't been able to concentrate worth squat. I feel badly because I know this half-here, shell of a me, has affected the people around me, and I know I need to get my shit back together and in focus; but goddamn I can't think. The neurons must not be firing well, 'cuse I am not on top of my game. At all.

I did however start to come up with ideas for a possible capstone project my senior year. ( A capstone project it in a sense an intense undergraduate version of a master's project.) I'm not exactly sure how this will pan out, or if it's even a good idea at all. I'm just proud I was able to make some connections in my 8am Biology class this past Thursday.

The idea comes from the importance in melatonin in the circadian clock. In animals that are sensitive to light cues for breeding purposes, melatonin works in conjuncture with the luteinizing hormone to signal the animal to come into estrus (from what I understand so far). Within the livestock and equine industry's the season an animal is bred is very important, and there are two big players that attempt to change the regular breeding seasons. Horses and sheep.

In the sheep industry, if you can breed out of seasons you can sell the lambs to market when there is less supply, and more demand- and thus make more money. Sheep, however, breed with decreasing daylight so they may lamb in spring. In order to get a fall lambing you have to have a breed of sheep less sensitive to light cues, or confine the ewes in a dark area for a period of time so they think the light is changing.

In the horse industry, the horses naturally breed with increasing daylight in order to foal in the spring the next year. There is attempts to change this, so the mares will breed earlier in the season and thus foal closer to January 1st- the universal birth date in the racing industry. In order to have the mares more receptive to breeding, once again you need to 'trick' them into thinking that daylight its increasing when it really isn't, by placing them under lights for increasing periods of time.

If melatonin is responsible for these cues, my question is whether it would be possible to induce or inhibit melatonin levels respectively, to get the ewe or mare to come into estrus out of season?

Of course this is all just spur of the moment thought, and I need to do a lot more research on it, but hey, its a start.