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Vertebrate reproductive science and technology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

New proteins identified in epididymal fluid from the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

Jean-Louis Dacheux A , Francoise Dacheux A , Valerie Labas B , Heath Ecroyd C , Brett Nixon D and Russell C. Jones D E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A UMR INRA-CNRS 6175, Nouzilly, 37380, France.

B Laboratoire de Spectrométrie de Masse pour la Protéomique, INRA, Nouzilly, 37380, France.

C School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.

D Discipline of Biological Sciences, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia.

E Corresponding author. Email: russell.jones@newcastle.edu.au

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 21(8) 1002-1007 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD09091
Submitted: 10 April 2009  Accepted: 7 June 2009   Published: 30 October 2009

Abstract

The platypus epididymal proteome is being studied because epididymal proteins are essential for male fertility in mammals and it is considered that knowledge of the epididymal proteome in an early mammal would be informative in assessing the convergence and divergence of proteins that are important in the function of the mammalian epididymis. Few of the epididymal proteins that have been identified in eutherian mammals were found in platypus caudal epididymal fluid, and the major epididymal proteins in the platypus (PXN-FBPL, SPARC and E-OR20) have never been identified in the epididymis of any other mammal.

Additional keywords: epididymis, monotreme, proteome, sperm maturation.


Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Macquarie Generation, Glen Rock Station and National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW, for providing facilities, and to The University of Newcastle Research Grant Committee for financial support.


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