It frequently has been postulated that intersexual coevolution between the male ejaculate and the female reproductive tract is a driving force in the rapid evolution of reproductive proteins. The dearth of research on female tracts, however, presents a major obstacle to empirical tests of this hypothesis. Here, we employ a comparative EST approach to identify 241 candidate female reproductive p...

During the preadult development of Drosophila melanogaster, the GLD (glucose dehydrogenase) gene (Gld) is expressed in a variety of tissues, including the immature reproductive tract. At the adult stage the expression of Gld becomes largely restricted to the reproductive tract of males and females. We examined the expression of GLD in the adult reproductive tract of 50 species in the genus Dros...

Background: In the past decade, childlessness has become a most important problem in the world. At the same time evidence confirms a link between sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and infertility problem. Some of viral STDs are: HIV, HPV, HSVand so on. The innate immune system is essential for the initial detection of invading viruses and subsequent activation of adaptive immunity. also, The...

Male-derived accessory gland proteins that are transferred to females during mating have profound effects on female reproductive physiology including increased ovulation, mating inhibition, and effects on sperm utilization and storage. The extreme rates of evolution seen in accessory gland proteins may be driven by sperm competition and sexual conflict, processes that may ultimately drive compl...

The metalloproteinase-like, disintegrin-like, cysteine-rich (MDC) family is a large group of sequence-related proteins, first characterized in the male reproductive tract, but subsequently also identified in non-reproductive tissues. Their primary translation products are of approximately 90 kDa and each can be divided into distinct domains which show remarkable homology to reprolysins; snake v...

Carboxylesterases (CEs) represent a multigene family of serine-dependent enzymes. Male-dependent CEs are over-expressed in the male reproductive tract of different animal species (bivalve mollusks, fruit-flies, and mammals). Here, a novel rat epididymis-specific gene named Ces7 was cloned and characterized. It was a novel member of CE family, which was mainly expressed and secreted to the lumen...

Female and male reproductive tracts are of interest sites to study of immune system because they encounter specific infections such as those are sexually transmitted. Furthermore, female reproductive tract is in close contact with allogenic sperms and transmitted microorganisms during intercourse and semi allogenic fetus during pregnancy. In mammals, there are two types of immune responses, the...

reproductive abnormalities cause major losses of sheep production. abattoir materials were used todetermine the extent of reproductive wastage. reproductive tracts were collected from 524 ewes slaughtered at urmia slaughter-house in urmia, northwest of iran, during a period of 12 months. overall, 30.10% of the ewes examined were pregnant. a total of 149 (28.44%) tracts developed acquired reprod...