Comparative aspects of the accessory sex glands and seminal biochemistry of mammals.

-l. Despite large gaps in the literature of semen biochemistry, especially of wild species, recent studies of the carbohydrate biochemistry of marsupial semen allow an approach to the question of the origin and evolution of mammalian seminal plasma. 2. The marsupials are a very important part of an overall.picture of seminal plasma evolution because they are the end product of an alternative line of mammalian evolution genetically separated from the eutherians for over I00 million years. 3. The present paper discusses the accessory sex glands and seminal sugars of mammals from a comparative point of view in the light of present knowledge of evolutionary relationships and suggests possible schemes of evolution of mammalian seminal plasma. ACCESSORY SEX GLANDS OF MARSUPIALS AND