Sperm-binding regions on bovine egg zona pellucida glycoprotein ZP4 studied in a solid supported form on plastic plate

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 9;16(7):e0254234. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254234. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

The zona pellucida (ZP) is a transparent envelope that surrounds the mammalian oocyte and mediates species-selective sperm-oocyte interactions. The bovine ZP consists of the glycoproteins ZP2, ZP3, and ZP4. Sperm-binding mechanisms of the bovine ZP are not yet fully elucidated. In a previous report, we established the expression system of bovine ZP glycoproteins using Sf9 insect cells and found that the ZP3/ZP4 heterocomplex inhibits the binding of sperm to the ZP in a competitive inhibition assay, while ZP2, ZP3, ZP4, the ZP2/ZP3 complex, and the ZP2/ZP4 complex do not exhibit this activity. Here, we show that bovine sperm binds to plastic plates coated with ZP4 in the absence of ZP3. We made a series of ZP4 deletion mutants to study the sperm-binding sites. The N-terminal region, Lys-25 to Asp-136, and the middle region, Ser-290 to Lys-340, of ZP4 exhibit sperm-binding activity. These results suggest that among the three components of bovine ZP glycoproteins, ZP4 contains the major potential sperm-binding sites, and the formation of a multivalent complex is necessary for the sperm-binding activity of ZP4.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Egg Proteins*
  • Oocytes / metabolism
  • Plastics*
  • Zona Pellucida Glycoproteins*

Substances

  • Egg Proteins
  • Plastics
  • Zona Pellucida Glycoproteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (15K06961, 18K06076 to NY) from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Japan and by Research Support Program for Young Scientists from Graduate School of Science, Chiba University to KD. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.