Acquisition of Fertilizing Capacity by Chimpanzee Sperm

Gould, Kenneth G.; Young, Leona G.

doi:10.1159/000156430

Cited by 21 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…16,17 Prior to exposure to epididymal gene products, spermatozoa are immotile and unable to bind or penetrate the ovum. 18 Gene duplication and positive Darwinian selection are hallmarks of vertebrate host defense and in genes involved in reproduction. 19,20 Evolution of immune system gene families is driven by gene duplication, interlocus recombination, and positive Darwinian selection favoring diversity at the amino-acid level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification, characterization, and evolution of a primate β-defensin gene cluster

et al. 2005

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Defensins are members of a large diverse family of cationic antimicrobial peptides that share a signature pattern consisting of six conserved cysteine residues. Defensins have a wide variety of functions and their disruption has been implicated in various human diseases. Here we report the characterization of DEFB119-DEFB123, five genes in the human b-defensin cluster locus on chromosome 20q11.1. The genomic structures of DEFB121 and DEFB122 were determined in silico. Sequences of the five macaque orthologs were obtained and expression patterns of the genes were analyzed in humans and macaque by semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Expression was restricted to the male reproductive tract. The genes in this cluster are differentially regulated by androgens. Evolutionary analyses suggest that this cluster originated by a series of duplication events and by positive selection. The evolutionary forces driving the proliferation and diversification of these defensins may be related to reproductive specialization and/or the host-parasite coevolutionary process.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification, characterization, and evolution of a primate β-defensin gene cluster

et al. 2005

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“…When spermatozoa enter the cauda epididymis, they attain full fertilizing potential equal to ejaculated spermatozoa. In chimpanzees, Gould and Young [1990] demonstrated that caput epididymal spermatozoa could not penetrate zona-free hamster oocytes in vitro. However, cauda epididymal spermatozoa could penetrate and fertilize intact chimpanzee oocytes in vitro at a rate not different from that of ejaculated sperm, despite the fact that the surface negative charge on the head [Gould et al, 1984] and the swimming pattern [Gould et al, 1988] of cauda epididymal sperm differ from those of ejaculated sperm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth of a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) after artificial insemination with cryopreserved epididymal spermatozoa collected postmortem

Kusunoki

Daimaru²,

Minami³

et al. 2001

Zoo Biology

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A male chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) suddenly died of acute hemorrhagic enteritis at the age of 18 years. Within 24 hours after its death, a large quantity of spermatozoa of excellent quality was recovered from the distal cauda epididymides and was subsequently cryopreserved. After storage for 67 days, the frozen spermatozoa were thawed and inseminated in an adult, normal cycling, nulliparous female. The optimal day for insemination was estimated by monitoring the swelling of the female's sex skin and urinary luteinizing hormone concentrations. Pregnancy was confirmed by a urinary chorionic gonadotropin test, and a normal female infant was born after 214 days of gestation. This birth demonstrates that distal cauda epididymal spermatozoa recovered from a dead male can be cryopreserved and successfully inseminated in a female chimpanzee. Zoo Biol 20:135-143, 2001.

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“…The secretory and absorptive functions of the epididymal epithelium provide an environment that enables sperm maturation [1][2][3], protects sperm against oxidative and proteolytic processes, and prepares sperm for storage prior to ejaculation [4][5][6]. Different segments of the epididymis vary significantly with respect to epithelial morphology [7,8] and the proteins they secrete [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These message variants encode eight small peptides of 4-11 kDa that have different amino acid sequences [12,16]. The differences in amino acid sequences result from the alternative use of two promoters (promoters A and B) and eight exons (exons [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] exon. Because of this shift, the same 3Ј-terminal cDNA sequence can result in two different C-terminal peptide sequences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

EP2 Splicing Variants in Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta) Epididymis1

Fröhlich

Ibrahim

Young

2003

Biology of Reproduction

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The expression pattern of EP2 variants was examined in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of complementary cDNA protocols, 11 message variants were identified in rhesus epididymis, only three of which (EP2B, EP2C, and EP2E) have previously been reported. The most abundant variant found in human, EP2A, was not found in rhesus. Seven of the eight new rhesus EP2 variants (EP2J-EP2Q) use previously unidentified 5'-splicing sites in exon 3, and four variants use three previously unidentified exons whose counterparts are present in the human EP2 gene. Overall, 3 of the 11 variants, EP2C, EP2E, and EP2Q, code for beta-defensin-like peptides whose probable physiological role is to protect the male reproductive tract against microbial invasions. Because of the complex splicing pattern that causes some downstream exons to be read in any of the three reading frames, the N-termini of the other eight EP2 peptide variants consist of a partial beta-defensin motif with three cysteines, followed by amino acid sequences that have no recognizable homology to known proteins.

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Acquisition of Fertilizing Capacity by Chimpanzee Sperm

Cited by 21 publications

References 13 publications

Identification, characterization, and evolution of a primate β-defensin gene cluster

Identification, characterization, and evolution of a primate β-defensin gene cluster

Birth of a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) after artificial insemination with cryopreserved epididymal spermatozoa collected postmortem

EP2 Splicing Variants in Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta) Epididymis1

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