1. Eggs and chemical preparation
Fertilized Kinman county, Taiwan, chicken eggs were obtained from Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University.
Potassium permanganante (KMnO4=158.04) and Formalin (HCHO=30.02) extra pure reagent was purchased from Choneye Pure Chemical (Taiwan). Blood Genomic DNA purification kit for PCR gender identification were purchased from Biokit (Barcelona, Spain)
2. Carbon epoxy based electrode
Electrode performance are very important in impedance spectroscopy technique. The electrode should be low noise, repeatable, and accuracy. For the development process, standard ECG electrode was used for evaluation step.
Approximately 40 cubic millimeters (mm3) of carbon epoxy (volume resistivity of \(\approx\)40Ohms∙cm) was dropped onto a 10x10(mm) adhesive conductive cloth (contact resistance of 0.05Ohms/cm2) (Figure 2a) where the cloth will be used to stick on one end of the RG-1.13m coaxial cable (Figure 2c) to the designated point on the chicken egg. The designated points on the eggs will be discussed in the later part of this paper. Using the resistivity forrmula \(\rho = R*A/l\), where R is the resistance, A is the cross-sectional area, and l is the length of the specimen, plus the resistance of the 1 cm2 conductive cloth piece, the total resistance of the electrode was calculated to be 2.05 Ohm.
3. Chicken egg electrodes positions
While putting in the incubator, the blunt end of the egg should face upward as seen in Figure 3. In this experiment, we wants to measure the eggs impedance at differents positions. For this pioneer study, we chose to put the electrode as shown in Figure 3, based on the standard body mass bio-electrical impedance analysis. An electrode will be attached onto both blunt and pointy ends of the egg marking position 1 and 2 (on the height circuference), whereas position 3 and 4 are determined by marking the width circumference of the egg where position 3 is a random point on the circumference and position 4 is opposite to position 3.
4. Pinout circuit
The coaxial cables after being attached on to the eggs at one end were connected to a pinout circuit (Figure 4) at the other end using SMA headers (U1 – U4) making it easier for data acquisition process. The purpose of the pinout circuit is firstly to make it easier to switch between electrodes during measurements, secondly shielding to reduce the noise causes by electrostatic of a large number of wires. The Impedance Analyzers probes will be attached onto the C1 and C2 pins.
5. Experimental setup
The obtained were put inside the incubator for 14 days in total, from day 0 to day 13 of incubation process. During this incubation period, measurements were made with the eggs are still inside the incubator by attaching the Impedance Analyzer (WK6420) probes to the pinout circuits.
5.1. Incubator preparation
DI water was stored in a 10 liters tank and were used by the incubator to maintain the humidity during the incubation process, this DI water must be refilled when needed. The humidity level was kept stable at 54-56% and the temperature was 99.5oF (Figure 6c). Before this incubation process, sterilization of the incubation area must be performed. Standard fumigation process was applied to sterilize the incubator before each incubation process.
The sterilization process consists of steps described as below:
a. Clean the inside of the incubator thoroughly using clean towel
b. Seal all of the air holes on the incubator, making sure no air leakage can happen
c. Exact 3mg of potassium permangannate was spooned into a ceramic container
d. Put the ceramic container inside the incubator through the main door
e. Exact 6ml of formalin was pipetted into the container
g. Immediately closed the door, and tightly sealed it as chemical reaction happen inside, where a poisonous brown-purple formaldehyde gas being produced.
h. After 20 minutes, the vent and other air holes of the incubator can be opened for air circulation.
Remove the ceramic container and the incubator is sanitized.
5.2. Bioimpedance measurement experiment design
Bioimpedance data were measured using the Wayne Kerr 6420C Impedance Analyzer & LCR Meter (Wayne Kerr Electronics, USA) (Figure 5). The parameters are set as :
On the day of collection, fertilized eggs were stored at room temperature for electrode attachments. After the carbon epoxy based electrodes has been firmly attached onto the eggs it was let cure in room temperature for 24 hours before being put inside the incubator. A small hole with a diameter of 20mm was drilled out as can be seen in figure 6a,b. then by inserting a 20mm PVC tube into the hole, the cable were tunneled out. This tube was tightly sealed during the incubation process.
The impedance measurement experiment was performed step-by-step as described below:
a. Unsoiled the surface of the egg using a dry and clean towel, and marked using pencil. The eggs are kept at room temperature.
b. 10mm*10mm pieces of conductive fabric cloth were cut out and measured.
c. 1 meter long coaxial cables was cut, striped and shield layer insulated with heat-shrunk tubing.
d. 40 mm3 of carbon epoxy was dropped onto the conductive fabric cloth.
e. Put the stripped end of the coaxial cable into the carbon epoxy dropped conductive fabric cloth.
f. Tape the whole configuration onto desired positions of each egg.
g. Let cured at room temperature for 24 hours.
h. Put the eggs inside the incubator, tunneled the wires out and connect them to SMA heads and pinout circuit.
Every another 24 hours, make the impedance spectrum measurement for 13 more days
5.3. Genomic DNA extraction and gender identification using PCR
A standard PCR process described in [27], where genimoc DNA of the chick was collected from its blood and applied to the PCR, was used to determined the gender of the chicken egg after day 13 of incubation. The genomic DNA collection process is as followed:
a. A 10 µL whole blood sample was collected from each chicken fetus after 14 days (from day 0 to day 13) incubation. The whole blood sample contained le.ukocytes and provided genomic DNA for gender identification. Genomic DNA was extracted using Blood Genomic DNA purification kti (Biokit, Barcelona, Spain).
b. The whole blood sample was added with 20 µL proteinase K, 170 µL Phosphate buffered solution and 200 µL binding buffer together.
c. The mixture was then vortexed and incubated in 70°C oven overnight.
d. After overnight incubation, each mixed sample was added with 200 µL 100% ethanol and transferred into filter column provided by Biokit genomic DNA purification kit.
e. This filter column was then centrifuged at 15,000 ×g for 1 min in room temperature.
f. The suspend solution was discarded, and pellet was washed with 600 µL washing buffer followed 15,000 ×g centrifuge for 1 min in room temperature, twice.
g. Centrifuged again at 15,000 ×g for 3 min in room temperature to remove remained water.
h. A 1.5 mL microtube was inserted with the filter column and 25 µL elution buffer was added into filter column to collect isolated genomic DNA.
Table 1
PCR program for chicken gender identification.
|
Temperature
|
Time
|
|
Initial
|
95ºc
|
30s
|
|
Denaturation
|
95ºc
|
30s
|
30 cycle
|
Annealing
|
58ºc
|
1min
|
Extension
|
72ºc
|
1min
|
Finish
|
72ºc
|
5min
|
|
PCR was performed as Table 1. with each sample containing a total 25 µL mixture of 2 µL eluted genomic DNA, 16µL deionized water, 5µL master mix, 1 µL 2250 forward primer (5'-GTTACTGATTCGTCTACGAGA-3'), and 1 µL 2718 reverse primer (5'-ATTGAAATGATCCAGTGCTTG-3') using Biometra T-Personal thermal cycler (Analytikjena GmBH, Jena, Germany). The primer design is based on a pilot study for gender identification on avian (Romanova et al., 2019). Agarose gel (2%) electrophoresis was performed to analyze PCR products. Single band of 552 bp indicated a male fetus, whereas double bands in 358 bp and 552 bp indicated a female fetus (Figure 7).
6. Statistical analysis
Independent T-test statistical analysis using Microsoft Excel were made in order to construct the relationship between the chicken egg sex and the collected impedance data.