Copulatory plugs inhibit the reproductive success of rival males.

Ejaculated proteins play important roles in reproductive fitness. In many species, seminal fluid coagulates and forms what has been referred to as a copulatory plug in the female's reproductive tract. In mice, previous work demonstrated that knockout males missing a key seminal fluid protein were unable to form a plug and less successful at siring litters in noncompetitive matings (one female, one male), probably the result of reduced sperm transport or insufficient stimulation of the female.

The C. elegans rab family: identification, classification and toolkit construction.

Rab monomeric GTPases regulate specific aspects of vesicle transport in eukaryotes including coat recruitment, uncoating, fission, motility, target selection and fusion. Moreover, individual Rab proteins function at specific sites within the cell, for example the ER, golgi and early endosome. Importantly, the localization and function of individual Rab subfamily members are often conserved underscoring the significant contributions that model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans can make towards a better understanding of human disease caused by Rab and vesicle trafficking malfunction.

Comparison of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and seasonal influenza, Western Australia, 2009.

We compared confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza and seasonal influenza diagnosed in Western Australia during the 2009 influenza season. From 3,178 eligible reports, 984 pandemic and 356 seasonal influenza patients were selected; 871 (88.5%) and 288 (80.