Pregnancy establishment in cattle without embryonic interferon tau
A study in cattle demonstrates that early pregnancy establishment, fetal development, and the birth of live calves occur without embryonic interferon tau, overturning a fundamental paradigm of ruminant reproductive biology.
Acknowledgements We gratefully acknowledge the staff of LAFUGA at the Gene Center, LMU Munich, for excellent technical support, and Helen Schweizer and the staff of the Livestock Center, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, for excellent veterinary management. We thank Stefanie Pfleger (Esaote Germany) for assistance with ultrasonography, and Michael Rothe (Lipidomix GmbH, Germany) for performing the prostaglandin measurements.
Funding This project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation; Projektnummer 555245615, granted to TF). The instrumentation for proteomics was partly funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation; Projektnummer 534046536, granted to T.F.).
A.A. is a fellow of the Leducq Network 23CVD01. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Author information Authors and Affiliations Chair for Molecular Animal Breeding and Biotechnology, Gene Center and Department of Veterinary Sciences, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany Asghar Ali, Valeri Zakhartchenko, Tuna Güngör & Eckhard Wolf Center for Innovative Medical Models (CiMM), LMU Munich, Oberschleißheim, Germany Asghar Ali, Valeri Zakhartchenko, Tuna Güngör & Eckhard Wolf Livestock Center, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, Oberschleißheim, Germany Stefan Nüske, Sebastian Schwanitz & Armin M.
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Scholz Laboratory for Functional Genome Analysis (LAFUGA), Gene Center, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany Jan B. Stöckl, Sarah Hecken, Andreas Hauser, Stefan Krebs, Thomas Fröhlich & Eckhard Wolf Department of Veterinary Sciences, Chair of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany Sven Reese Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL), Oberschleißheim, Germany Marcel Suchowski Vion Waldkraiburg GmbH, Waldkraiburg, Germany Robert Friedl Institute of Veterinary Pathology, Center for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany Andreas Blutke Institute of Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany Martina Protschka & Mathias Büttner Institute for Animal Breeding, Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL), Grub, Germany Horst-Dieter Reichenbach Authors Asghar Ali Valeri Zakhartchenko Tuna Güngör Stefan Nüske Jan B.
Stöckl Sarah Hecken Andreas Hauser Stefan Krebs Sven Reese Marcel Suchowski Robert Friedl Sebastian Schwanitz Armin M. Scholz Andreas Blutke Martina Protschka Mathias Büttner Thomas Fröhlich Horst-Dieter Reichenbach Eckhard Wolf Corresponding authors Correspondence to Asghar Ali or Eckhard Wolf .
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To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Reprints and permissions About this article Cite this article Ali, A., Zakhartchenko, V., Güngör, T. et al. Pregnancy establishment in cattle without embryonic interferon tau.
Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78446-4 Download citation Received : 19 January 2026 Accepted : 23 September 2026 Published : 08 October 2026 DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78446-4
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