BACKGROUND Reproduction in pigs is one of the most economically important traits. To improve the reproductive performances, numerous studies have focused on the identification of candidate genes. However, it is hard for one to read all literatures thoroughly to get information. So we have developed a database providing candidate genes for reproductive researches in pig by mining and processing ...

Widely regarded as a revolutionary drug in its early years, "the pill" may be considered the first designer or lifestyle drug. Approximately 85% of women in the United States will use an oral contraceptive (OC) for an average of 5 years. Since the introduction of OCs in the 1960s, both health benefits and safety concerns have been attributed to their use. Widespread use of OC formulations by wo...

Eusociality represents a major transition in evolution and is typified by cooperative brood care and reproductive division of labor between generations. In bees, this division of labor allows queens and workers to phenotypically specialize. Worker traits associated with helping are thought to be crucial to the fitness of a eusocial lineage, and recent studies of honey bees (genus Apis) have fou...

Wolbachia is an intracellular symbiont of invertebrates responsible for inducing a wide variety of phenotypes in its host. These host-Wolbachia relationships span the continuum from reproductive parasitism to obligate mutualism, and provide a unique system to study genomic changes associated with the evolution of symbiosis. We present the genome sequence from a parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachi...

Progressive kidney disease follows nephron loss, hyperfiltration, and incomplete repair, a process described as "maladaptive." In the past 20 years, a new discipline has emerged that expands research horizons: evolutionary medicine. In contrast to physiologic (homeostatic) adaptation, evolutionary adaptation is the result of reproductive success that reflects natural selection. Evolutionary exp...

Gonadal maturation is an extremely energy consuming process for batch spawners and it is associated with a significant decrease in growth and seasonal deterioration in flesh quality. Our knowledge about the molecular mechanisms linking sexual maturation and muscle growth is still limited. In the present study, we performed RNA-Seq using 454 GS-FLX pyrosequencing in fast skeletal muscle sampled ...

Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development (MIRD) and Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research (PHIMR) are institutes with a traditional focus on reproductive biology. Located in Melbourne, they have expertise ranging from male and female fertility/infertility, hormonal regulation, pre-implantation biology and screening, sudden infant death syndrome, cancers of the reproductive tract,...