Mammalian sperm-egg recognition: does fertilin β have a major role to play?

Abstract

The advent of simple in vitro fertilisation techniques has provided the reproductive biologist with an invaluable system for assaying sperm fertilising ability. In particular, they provide a useful way of identifying and characterising gamete‐specific proteins that play a role in sperm‐egg interactions, and in recent years, a growing number of sperm surface proteins have been identified that appear to be involved in these processes. Fertilin β was one of the first sperm membrane proteins to be implicated in egg interactions and it has been proposed that this is mediated by means of binding of its disintegrin‐like domain to cognate integrin receptors on the egg plasma membrane. A recent paper in Science by Cho and colleagues [Cho et al. 1998. Fertilisation defects in sperm from mice lacking fertilin β. Science 281:1857–1859 (Ref. 1)] provides preliminary data on a fertilin β knockout mouse. Whilst fertilin βnull males had greatly reduced fertility, somewhat surprisingly, this could be largely attributed to causes other than impaired binding to the egg plasma membrane. BioEssays 21:183–187, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Adhesion molecules in gamete transport, fertilization, early embryonic development, and implantation—role in establishing a pregnancy in cattle: A review

“…ADAMs that have been associated with reproduction include ADAM1 (fertilin α; initially named PH-30), ADAM2 (fertilin β), and ADAM3 (cyritestin; Blobel et al, 1992;Edwards et al, 2008;Evans, 1999;Frayne & Hall, 1999;Myles et al, 1994;Myles, Primakoff, & Bellve, 1981). Functional fertilin is a heterodimer comprised of fertilin α and fertilin β (Evans, 1999(Evans, , 2001Wong et al, 2001).…”

Transcripts encoding the sperm surface protein tMDC II are non-functional in the human

“…In particular, sperm were rarely observed in the oviducts of female mice mated with fertilin β-null males and the number of fertilin β-null sperm binding to the zona pellucida in itro was significantly reduced. Whether this implies alternative or additional functions for fertilin β, or simply indirect effects associated with the lack of fertilin β on the membranes of the knockout sperm, remains to be established (see [24] for discussion). Nevertheless, the fact that fertilin β-null sperm are not completely infertile does raise the likelihood that additional sperm surface integrin-binding proteins are involved in sperm-oolemma interactions.…”

Transcripts encoding the sperm surface protein tMDC II are non-functional in the human

“…In particular, sperm were rarely observed in the oviducts of female mice mated with fertilin β-null males and the number of fertilin β-null sperm Received 31 March 1999/12 May 1999 ; accepted 26 May 1999 binding to the zona pellucida in itro was significantly reduced. Whether this implies alternative or additional functions for fertilin β, or simply indirect effects associated with the lack of fertilin β on the membranes of the knockout sperm, remains to be established (see [24] for discussion). Nevertheless, the fact that fertilin β-null sperm are not completely infertile does raise the likelihood that additional sperm surface integrin-binding proteins are involved in sperm-oolemma interactions.…”