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Sperm motility initiation by egg jelly of the anuran, Discoglossus pictus may be mediated by sperm motility-initiating substance of the internally-fertilizing newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2012

Eriko Takayama-Watanabe ,
Chiara Campanella ,
Hideo Kubo  and
Akihiko Watanabe
Eriko Takayama-Watanabe
Affiliation:
Institute of Arts and Sciences, Yamagata University, 1-4-12 Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan.
Chiara Campanella
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia Strutturale e Funzionale, Università di Napoli ‘Federico II’, I-80126 Napoli, Italy.
Hideo Kubo
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Biology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, 2-1-6 Kamikitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan.
Akihiko Watanabe*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yamagata University, 1-4-12 Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan.
*
All correspondence to: Akihiko Watanabe. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yamagata University, 1-4-12 Kojirakawa, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan. Tel: +81 23 628 4619. e-mail: watan@sci.kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp
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Summary

The egg jelly of Discoglossus pictus contains sperm motility-activating activity, the molecular basis of which has not been studied. Discoglossus pictus sperm initiated motility immediately after immersion in egg-jelly extract, as well as after immersion in hyposmotic solution, which initiates sperm motility in the external fertilization of anuran amphibians. Sequential treatment of the D. pictus sperm with these two solutions revealed the predominant effect of hyposmolality in initiation of motility. The motility initiation induced by jelly extract was suppressed by a monoclonal antibody (mAb) that is specific for the 34 kDa sperm motility-initiating substance (SMIS) in the egg jelly of the newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster. Immunoblotting using the anti-SMIS mAb revealed several antigenic proteins that included major ones with sizes of 18- and 34-kDa in D. pictus jelly extract. Scanning electron microscopic observation revealed that granules of jelly matrix, in which SMIS localizes and which have a critical role in the internal fertilization of C. pyrrhogaster, were not observed near the surface of the D. pictus egg jelly. These results suggest that sperm motility-activating activity in egg jelly of D. pictus may be mediated by SMIS homologous proteins that act through a mechanism that is partially different from that of C. pyrrhogaster.

Keywords

CynopsDiscoglossusEgg jellyFertilizationSperm motility
Type
Research Article
Information
Zygote , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , November 2012 , pp. 417 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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