Egg Coat Proteins Across Metazoan Evolution

Current Topics in Developmental Biology
Emily E Killingbeck, Willie J Swanson

Abstract

All animal oocytes are surrounded by a glycoproteinaceous egg coat, a specialized extracellular matrix that serves both structural and species-specific roles during fertilization. Egg coat glycoproteins polymerize into the extracellular matrix of the egg coat using a conserved protein-protein interaction module-the zona pellucida (ZP) domain-common to both vertebrates and invertebrates, suggesting that the basic structural features of egg coats have been conserved across hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Egg coat proteins, as with other proteins involved in reproduction, are frequently found to be rapidly evolving. Given that gamete compatibility must be maintained for the fitness of sexually reproducing organisms, this finding is somewhat paradoxical and suggests a role for adaptive diversification in reproductive protein evolution. Here we review the structure and function of metazoan egg coat proteins, with an emphasis on the potential role their evolution has played in the creation and maintenance of species boundaries.

Citations

Oct 6, 2020·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Jolie A Carlisle, Willie J Swanson
Feb 5, 2021·Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology·Mª José Izquierdo-RicoManuel Avilés
Aug 14, 2020·Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology·Brett NixonMatthew D Dun
Jun 21, 2021·Molecular Reproduction and Development·Emily E KillingbeckWillie J Swanson

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