Abstract
Santa Ines is a native Brazilian breed of hair sheep, representing a genotype developed in and adapted to tropical regions. Seminal plasma of the rams was obtained, subjected to two-dimensional electrophoresis and the major spots identified by tandem mass spectrometry. There were 143 spots consistently present on seminal plasma maps. The most abundant spots represented two families, binder of sperm proteins (BSP) and spermadhesins. The proteins included ram seminal vesicles proteins (RSVP) 14 kDa and 22 kDa, and bodhesin 1 and 2. This is the first report of identification of seminal plasma proteins of tropically-adapted sheep. These proteins are involved in several aspects of reproductive function, including sperm capacitation, sperm survival in the oviduct and gamete interaction in mammals.
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