Seminal Plasma and Sperm Membrane Proteins of Buffalo and Cattle Bulls: a Comparative Study

Seminal plasma is complex fluid containing a wide variety of both organic and inorganic components, among which proteins are an important part of the high-molecular-weight substances. The protein composition of mammalian seminal plasma varies in species and has important effect on sperm functions such as sperm motility (Henricks et al., 1998), viability (Brandon et al., 1999) and freezability (Asadpour et al., 2007), sperm capacitation and fertilization (Rodriguez et al.,1998) and also serve to protect sperm from damage or to maintain their longevity which were evident from the correlation observed among semen characteristic and seminal plasma proteins reported by Sharma et al. (2015). Besides proteins of seminal plasma, sperm surface proteins reported to have important role in recognition of zona proteins for binding to zona and plasma lemma of ovum and also in acrosome reaction for successful fertilization (Jagadish et al., 2005). It has been reported that, the loss of integrity of the sperm plasma membrane is frequently associated with infertility in male, despite normal semen parameters (Rajeev and Reddy, 2004). Looking to the importance of buffalo in India, it becomes necessary to understand the structural and functional attributes of the buffalo spermatozoa and its comparison with that of cattle which will help in better understanding of molecular features that make the buffalo sperm less fertile than cattle. In the scenario of climate change, indigenous animals are of choice for better dissemination of gemplasm and it urges the science to have a picture of the protein profiles of the semen as a whole to make it more suitable for artificial insemination. Keeping in this mind the present study was designed for comparative evaluation of protein profiles of seminal plasma and sperm membrane in buffalo and cattle bull semen. Original Article