Characterization of the functional domains of boar acrosin involved in nonenzymatic binding to homologous zona pellucida glycoproteins

A Basic 18-Amino Acid Peptide Contains the Polysulfate-Binding Domain Responsible for Activation of the Boar Proacrosin/Acrosin System1

“…A search for this kind of consensus sequence in boar proacrosin showed a region near the N-terminus of the protein. This result agrees with previous biochemical studies showing that the main PSBD of proacrosin is the N-terminus of the heavy chain [21,55]. It is worth noting that the sequence R-R-Y-H is conserved among all acrosins, showing no substitutions of any kind.…”

PH-20 but not acrosin is involved in sperm penetration of the macaque zona pellucida

“…These findings support the model, developed from work with guinea pigs, that PH-20 is involved in secondary sperm-zona binding (Primakoff and Myles, 1983;Primakoff et al, 1988). Acrosin and proacrosin also have been suggested to act as sperm ligands for zona pellucida during secondary binding (Jones et al, 1988;Hedrick et al, 1989;Urch and Patel, 1991;Crosby et al, 1998), but our observations demonstrate that acrosin is not located on the inner acrosomal membrane of the zona pellucida-induced, acrosome reacted macaque sperm, but is found in the acrosomal shroud. Fig.…”

Effect of Recombinant Boar β-Acrosin on Sperm Binding to Intact Zona Pellucida During In Vitro Fertilization1

“…We have also shown that the binding is specific; it was inhibited by 10 g/ml of cold native proacrosin and by 100 M of fucoidan, thus confirming our dot-blot results [14]. However, the inhibition was not 100%, as indicated by the dot-blot assays, possibly because it would be more difficult for the competitor to dissociate the interaction between an intact zona and a purified protein in solution than between two purified proteins in solution.…”

“…In this work, we have proved that recombinant ␤-acrosin and native proacrosin are able to bind to intact ZPs with [14]. We have also shown that the binding is specific; it was inhibited by 10 g/ml of cold native proacrosin and by 100 M of fucoidan, thus confirming our dot-blot results [14].…”