Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on March 2, 2007
Glycobiology 2007 17(6):553-567; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwm025
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis of protein-linked glycosylation in a sperm–somatic cell adhesion system
4 Division of Molecular Biosciences, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
5 Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
6 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, WI 53792-6177
7 Department of Physiological Sciences, Eastern Virginia Medical School, 700 Olney Road, Norfolk, VA 23501
8 M-SCAN Mass Spectrometry Research and Training Centre, Silwood Park, Ascot SL5 7PZ, UK
9 Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, Division of Reproductive and Perinatal Research, School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65212
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; a.dell{at}ic.ac.uk and clarkgf{at}health.missouri.edu
Received on June 14, 2006; revised on February 23, 2007; accepted on February 24, 2007
Murine sperm initiate fertilization by binding to the specialized extracellular matrix of their complementary eggs, known as the zona pellucida. On the basis of data reported in this study, mouse sperm also bind to rabbit erythrocytes with higher affinity than they do to murine eggs. This unusual interaction between a germ cell and a somatic cell ("sperm–somatic cell adhesion system") is also carbohydrate dependent based on its sensitivity to mild periodate oxidation. To determine what types of carbohydrate sequences could be involved in this interaction, the protein-linked oligosaccharides of rabbit erythrocytes were sequenced using novel matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry methods that enabled the analysis of individual components up to m/z 9000. The N-glycans are primarily complex biantennary and triantennary types terminated with Gal
1–3Gal sequences. The majority of these oligosaccharides also possess one antenna consisting of a highly branched polylactosamine-type sequence that is also associated with many glycosphingolipids that coat rabbit erythrocytes. These erythrocytes also express Core 1 and Core 2 O-glycans terminated primarily with Gal1–3Gal sequences and to a lesser extent sialic acid. These results confirm that rabbit erythrocytes and mouse eggs present very different types of carbohydrate sequences on their surfaces. However, oligosaccharides terminated with ß1–6-linked N-acetyllactosamine or its 1–3 galactosylated analog are expressed on both the mouse zona pellucida and this somatic cell type. The far more abundant presentation of such sequences on rabbit erythrocytes compared with murine eggs could explain why mouse sperm display such exceptional affinity for this somatic cell type.
Key words: sperm–egg binding / mouse / zona pellucida / N-glycans / O-glycans
2 Present address: School of Science and Technology, University Malaysia Sabah, Locked Bag 2073, 88999 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
3 Present address: M-SCAN Ltd., 3 Millars Business Centre, Fishponds Close, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 2TZ, UK
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  P.-C. Pang, B. Tissot, E. Z. Drobnis, P. Sutovsky, H. R. Morris, G. F. Clark, and A. Dell Expression of Bisecting Type and Lewisx/Lewisy Terminated N-Glycans on Human Sperm J. Biol. Chem., December 14, 2007; 282(50): 36593 - 36602. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|