Alves A P, Mulloy B, Diniz J A, Mourão P A
Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68041, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-590, Brazil.
J Biol Chem. 1997 Mar 14;272(11):6965-71. doi: 10.1074/jbc.272.11.6965.
We have characterized the fine structure of sulfated polysaccharides from the egg jelly layer of three species of sea urchins and tested the ability of these purified polysaccharides to induce the acrosome reaction in spermatozoa. The sea urchin Echinometra lucunter contains a homopolymer of 2-sulfated, 3-linked alpha-L-galactan. The species Arbacia lixula and Lytechinus variegatus contain linear sulfated alpha-L-fucans with regular tetrasaccharide repeating units. Each of these sulfated polysaccharides induces the acrosome reaction in conspecific but not in heterospecific spermatozoa. These results demonstrate that species specificity of fertilization in sea urchins depends in part on the fine structure of egg jelly sulfated polysaccharide.
我们已对三种海胆卵胶层中硫酸化多糖的精细结构进行了表征，并测试了这些纯化多糖诱导精子顶体反应的能力。海胆Echinometra lucunter含有由2-硫酸化、3-连接的α-L-半乳聚糖组成的均聚物。Arbacia lixula和Lytechinus variegatus这两个物种含有具有规则四糖重复单元的线性硫酸化α-L-岩藻聚糖。这些硫酸化多糖中的每一种都能诱导同种精子而非异种精子发生顶体反应。这些结果表明，海胆受精的物种特异性部分取决于卵胶硫酸化多糖的精细结构。
