Background Heat shock protein A2 (HSPA2) is correlated with sperm maturity and function. Therefore, dysfunctional expression of this gene results in abnormal spermatogenesis. On the other hand, DNA damage in spermatozoa is considered to be an important cause of male infertility, and the presence of sperm with DNA fragmentation and chromatin abnormalities in human ejaculates is well documented, ...

Results of several lines of experimentation suggest that sperm-induced egg activation has several features in common with G protein-coupled receptor signal transduction mechanisms. We report that microinjection of GDP beta S into metaphase II-arrested mouse eggs blocks sperm-induced egg activation. Since GDP beta S inactivates both heterotrimeric and monomeric classes of G proteins, the involve...

Disubstituted haloacid by-products of drinking water disinfection such as dibromoacetic acid and dichloroacetic acid have been shown to perturb spermatogenesis and fertility in adult male rats. In the present study we sought to establish whether equimolar exposure to bromochloroacetic acid (BCA), a prevalent by-product in finished drinking water, is also capable of disrupting these endpoints, a...

Background: Assisted fertilization procedures are a currently widespread practice to regulate reproduction in humans and animals. The arising question is why the human being manipulating gametes to generate new individuals, if we do not understand yet the molecular mechanism of fertilization?. Successful completion of fertilization in mammals is dependent on three membrane fusion events: 1. the...

Although the immunogenic properties of sperm have been explored for a few decades, none of the antigens studied so far appears to be an effective target, to inhibit the fertilization process or shown the full spectrum of sperm antigenic potential. Antisperm antibodies (ASA) collected from infertile individuals and prepubertal boys with cryptorchidism together with two-dimensional (2D) electroph...

Phenotypic adaptations may be the result of changes in gene structure or gene regulation, but little is known about the evolution of gene expression. In addition, it is unclear whether the same selective forces may operate at both levels simultaneously. Reproductive proteins evolve rapidly, but the underlying selective forces promoting such rapid changes are still a matter of debate. In particu...

In most animals, female meiosis completes only after fertilization. Sperm entry has been implicated in providing a signal for the initiation of the final meiotic processes; however, a maternal component required for this process has not been previously identified. We report the characterization of a novel family of three highly similar paralogs (memi-1, memi-2, memi-3) that encode oocyte-specif...

This paper aims to overview recent insights in sperm surface remodelling pertinent to fertilization. A basic understanding of this remodelling is required to interpret the high amount of data appearing from high-throughput identification techniques for proteins presently applied in reproductive biology. From the extensive lists of protein candidates identified by proteomics, only a few are reco...

Membrane modifications in sperm cells represent a key step in sperm capacitation; however, the molecular basis of these modifications is not fully understood. Ezrin is the best-studied member of the ezrin/radixin/merlin family. As a cross-linker between the cortical cytoskeleton and plasma membrane proteins, ezrin contributes to remodeling of the membrane surface structure. Furthermore, activat...