About the Authors

Koichi Ushizawa

Affiliation Reproductive Biology Research Unit, Division of Animal Sciences, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Toru Takahashi

tatoru@affrc.go.jp

Affiliation Reproductive Biology Research Unit, Division of Animal Sciences, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Misa Hosoe

Affiliation Reproductive Biology Research Unit, Division of Animal Sciences, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Keiichiro Kizaki

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate, Japan

Kazuyoshi Hashizume

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KU TT KH. Performed the experiments: KU TT. Analyzed the data: KU TT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KU TT MH KK KH. Wrote the paper: KU KH.