Carbohydrate composition of specific rat epididymal protein.

Previous results demonstrated that androgen-dependent rat specific epididymal proteins (SEP) were bound to spermatozoa during their maturation in the epididymis. This paper describes the purification of glycoprotein DE, which constitutes 40% of SEP, and the identification and semiquantitative determination of the sugars forming its oligosaccharide chain. Affinity chromatography on Sepharose-Concanavalin A produced a sample of D-E 95% pure in which 10.5 g of sugar were present per 100 g protein. The percentual composition of the oligosaccharide was D-mannose 19%; D-galactose 3%; N-acetyl-D-glucosamine 33%; N-acetyl-neuraminic acid 31% and D-glucose 13%.