Novel regulatory mechanism for intracellular calcium ion concentration by membrane microdomain-localized glycans in sperm

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25292216
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied molecular and cellular biology
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: Kitajima Ken 名古屋大学, 生物機能開発利用研究センター, 教授 (80192558)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SATO CHIHIRO 名古屋大学, 生物機能開発利用研究センター, 准教授 (10343211)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YAMAGUCHI Yoshiki 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 糖鎖構造生物学研究チーム, チームリーダー (90323451) ; SHINGYOJI Chikako 東京大学, 理学系研究科, 准教授 (80125997)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 糖鎖 / 受精 / 精子 / 生理活性 / 蛋白質 / カルシウム調節 / 受精能獲得 / GPIアンカー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Many studies using glycan-related probes have reported the importance of glycan chains in fertilization. However, glycan-related gene-modified studies have told that glycans are not always essential for a successful fertilization. It is thus a currently important subject to re-evaluate molecular mechanisms for glycan-involved events at fertilization. To solve the subject, we focused on the "membrane microdomain" that is molecular complex of proteins and lipids with highly concentrated glycans on plasma membrane. In this study, we demonstrated the followings: (1) Glycan-enriched GPI-anchor peptide on the sperm membrane microdomains ubiquitously occurs not only in sea urchin and pig, but also avians and amphibians that have never been shown to contain such GPI-anchored molecules before; (2) These glycans are involved in sperm motility through regulating the intracellular calcium ion concentration in sperm.

Free Research Field

糖鎖生物学