Biomolecules 2013, 3(1), 85-107; doi:10.3390/biom3010085
Article

Binding of Sperm to the Zona Pellucida Mediated by Sperm Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins is not Species-Specific in Vitro between Pigs and Cattle

Kazuya Takahashi 1 email, Kazuhiro Kikuchi 2 email, Yasuomi Uchida 1 email, Saeko Kanai-Kitayama 1 email, Reiichiro Suzuki 1 email, Reiko Sato 3 email, Kazunori Toma 3 email, Masaya Geshi 4 email, Satoshi Akagi 4 email, Minoru Nakano 1 email and Naoto Yonezawa 1,* email
1 Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan 2 National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan 3 The Noguchi Institute, Tokyo 173-0003, Japan 4 National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, Ibaraki 305-0901, Japan
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 28 November 2012; in revised form: 7 January 2013 / Accepted: 16 January 2013 / Published: 25 January 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges in Glycan, Glycoprotein and Proteoglycan Research)
PDF Full-text Download PDF Full-Text [984 KB, uploaded 25 January 2013 17:00 CET]
Abstract: Carbohydrates are candidates for the basis of species-selective interaction of gametes during mammalian fertilization. In this study, we sought to clarify the roles of sugar residues in the species-selective, sperm–oocyte interaction in pigs and cattle. Acrosome-intact porcine and bovine sperm exhibited their strongest binding affinities for β-Gal and α-Man residues, respectively. Porcine-sperm specificity changed from β-Gal to α-Man after the acrosome reaction, while bovine-sperm specificity did not. Binding of acrosome-intact and acrosome-reacted sperm decreased after trypsinization, indicating that the carbohydrate-binding components are proteins. While immature oocytes bound homologous sperm preferentially to heterologous sperm, oocytes matured in vitro bound similar numbers of homologous and heterologous sperm. Lectin staining revealed the aggregation of α-Man residues on the outer surface of the porcine zona during maturation. In both species, zona-free, mature oocytes bound homologous sperm preferentially to heterologous sperm. The lectin-staining patterns of the zona pellucida and zona-free oocytes coincided with the carbohydrate-binding specificities of acrosome-intact and acrosome-reacted sperm, respectively, supporting the involvement of carbohydrates in gamete recognition in pigs and cattle. These results also indicate that sperm-zona pellucida and sperm–oolemma bindings are not strictly species-specific in pigs and cattle, and further suggest that sperm penetration into the zona and/or fusion with oolemma may be species-specific between pigs and cattle.
Keywords: glycolipid analog; glycoprotein; sperm-ligand; zona pellucida

Article Statistics

Click here to load and display the download statistics.

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Takahashi, K.; Kikuchi, K.; Uchida, Y.; Kanai-Kitayama, S.; Suzuki, R.; Sato, R.; Toma, K.; Geshi, M.; Akagi, S.; Nakano, M.; Yonezawa, N. Binding of Sperm to the Zona Pellucida Mediated by Sperm Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins is not Species-Specific in Vitro between Pigs and Cattle. Biomolecules 2013, 3, 85-107.

AMA Style

Takahashi K, Kikuchi K, Uchida Y, Kanai-Kitayama S, Suzuki R, Sato R, Toma K, Geshi M, Akagi S, Nakano M, Yonezawa N. Binding of Sperm to the Zona Pellucida Mediated by Sperm Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins is not Species-Specific in Vitro between Pigs and Cattle. Biomolecules. 2013; 3(1):85-107.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Takahashi, Kazuya; Kikuchi, Kazuhiro; Uchida, Yasuomi; Kanai-Kitayama, Saeko; Suzuki, Reiichiro; Sato, Reiko; Toma, Kazunori; Geshi, Masaya; Akagi, Satoshi; Nakano, Minoru; Yonezawa, Naoto. 2013. "Binding of Sperm to the Zona Pellucida Mediated by Sperm Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins is not Species-Specific in Vitro between Pigs and Cattle." Biomolecules 3, no. 1: 85-107.

Biomolecules EISSN 2218-273X Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert