Agglutination of Human Spermatozoa Due to Human Semen Culture Bacterial Isolates Bearing Sperm Ligand

Sperm ligand on Escherichia coli that agglutinates human spermatozoa has been extracted from washed E. coli cells by incubating with 3M NaCl for 12 h at 37oC under shake conditions (150 rpm). Further the sperm ligand was purified after extensive dialysis against double distilled water by step down chromatography procedures (molecular weight sieving, anion exchange). The purification procedure yielded a protein of apparent homogeneity. The ligand was heat labile as it could not withstand a temperature of 60oC for 10 minutes. The ligand did not pass through the dialysis tubing. The molecular weight was found to be ~71KDa. Electron microscopy studies of washed sperm cells treated with purified ligand showed profound morphological alterations to head, neck and tail.