The Human Egg's Zona Pellucida

Current Topics in Developmental Biology
Satish K Gupta

Abstract

Human zona pellucida (ZP) matrix, a delicate network of thin interconnected filaments, is primarily composed of four glycoproteins, namely, ZP1, ZP2, ZP3, and ZP4. All four zona proteins share common structural elements such as signal peptide, "ZP domain," consensus furin cleavage site, transmembrane-like domain, and short cytoplasmic tail. In addition, ZP1 and ZP4 also have "Trefoil domain." Recombinant/native human zona proteins have been used to investigate their binding characteristics to the capacitated and/or acrosome-reacted spermatozoa. These investigations revealed that ZP1, ZP3, and ZP4 primarily bind to the head region of the capacitated human spermatozoa, whereas ZP2 binds to the acrosome-reacted sperm. However, using transgenic mice, N-terminal region of human ZP2 has also been shown to play an important role in binding of sperm to the egg. ZP1, ZP3, and ZP4 lead to dose-dependent increase in acrosome reaction, suggesting that in humans more than one ZP glycoprotein is responsible for induction of acrosome reaction. Glycosylation of these proteins, in particular, N-linked glycosylation as well as sialyl-Lewisx, is essential for inducing acrosome reaction. Studies delineating downstream signaling events associated w...Continue Reading

Citations

May 12, 2019·Biology of Reproduction·Svetlana A Yatsenko, Aleksandar Rajkovic
Feb 7, 2020·Physiology·David EladDan Grisaru
Jul 14, 2019·Nature Communications·Kaoru NishimuraLuca Jovine
Oct 11, 2020·Journal of Developmental Biology·Jennifer D Cohen, Meera V Sundaram
Nov 4, 2020·PLoS Genetics·Jennifer D CohenMeera V Sundaram
Jan 20, 2021·Journal of Clinical Pathology·Xiaoli WeiZhongxian Lu
Feb 5, 2021·Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology·Mª José Izquierdo-RicoManuel Avilés
Feb 20, 2021·Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics·Yiming SunCongjian Xu
Feb 26, 2021·Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics·Kate WatsonDeirdre Zander-Fox
Mar 13, 2021·Biology of Reproduction·Ming-Hua ZengHong-Mei Xiao
Aug 7, 2021·Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology·Ying WangPhilip C N Chiu
Oct 29, 2021·The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research·Nazan YurtcuMichael H Dahan

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