School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Department of Plant Physiology and Biophysics, Julius-Von-Sachs Institute of the University Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2023 Dec 16;13(1):22428. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-49852-1.
Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP15) and growth differentiation factor (GDF9) are critical for ovarian follicular development and fertility and are associated with litter size in mammals. These proteins initially exist as pre-pro-mature proteins, that are subsequently cleaved into biologically active forms. Thus, the molecular forms of GDF9 and BMP15 may provide the key to understanding the differences in litter size determination in mammals. Herein, we compared GDF9 and BMP15 forms in mammals with high (pigs) and low to moderate (sheep) and low (red deer) ovulation-rate. In all species, oocyte lysates and secretions contained both promature and mature forms of BMP15 and GDF9. Whilst promature and mature GDF9 levels were similar between species, deer produced more BMP15 and exhibited, together with sheep, a higher promature:mature BMP15 ratio. N-linked glycosylation was prominant in proregion and mature GDF9 and in proregion BMP15 of pigs, and present in proregion GDF9 of sheep. There was no evidence of secreted native homo- or hetero-dimers although a GDF9 dimer in red deer oocyte lysate was detected. In summary, GDF9 appeared to be equally important in all species regardless of litter size, whilst BMP15 levels were highest in strict monovulatory species.
骨形态发生蛋白 15（BMP15）和生长分化因子 9（GDF9）对卵巢卵泡发育和生育能力至关重要，并与哺乳动物的产仔数有关。这些蛋白质最初以前脯氨酸-成熟前蛋白的形式存在，随后被切割成具有生物活性的形式。因此，GDF9 和 BMP15 的分子形式可能为理解哺乳动物产仔数差异提供了关键。在此，我们比较了高（猪）、低中等（绵羊）和低（马鹿）排卵率的哺乳动物中的 GDF9 和 BMP15 形式。在所有物种中，卵母细胞裂解物和分泌物均含有 BMP15 和 GDF9 的成熟前和成熟形式。虽然成熟前和成熟 GDF9 水平在物种间相似，但鹿产生了更多的 BMP15，并且与绵羊一样，具有更高的成熟前：成熟 BMP15 比值。N-连接糖基化在 GDF9 的前导区和成熟区以及猪的 BMP15 前导区中很明显，在绵羊的 GDF9 前导区中也存在。虽然在马鹿卵母细胞裂解物中检测到 GDF9 二聚体，但没有分泌天然同源或异源二聚体的证据。总之，无论产仔数如何，GDF9 在所有物种中似乎都同样重要，而 BMP15 水平在严格的单排卵物种中最高。
