Abstract

Three genes are known to be essential for gamete adhesion/fusion (Cd9, Izumo1 and Juno). Here, we confirmed that Spaca6 null males are infertile and showed that their sperm accumulate in the perivitelline space but are unable to fuse with oocyte. Like IZUMO1, SPACA6 which is expressed by human sperm, is remained on the equatorial segment after acrosomal reaction and is involved in human fertilization since an anti-SPACA6 antibody inhibited it. Despite the similarity of the phenotypes caused by Spaca6 and Izumo1 knockouts, these are not redundant and the essential relocation of IZUMO1 is not affected by the lack of SPACA6. We propose a model in which IZUMO1 and SPACA6 would be part of a molecular complex necessary for gamete fusion and that their concomitant presence would be required for the recruitment of another essential molecular actor, such as a fusogen, for the fusion to take place.

Details

Title
Sperm SPACA6 protein is required for mammalian Sperm-Egg Adhesion/Fusion
Author
Barbaux Sandrine 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ialy-Radio Côme 1 ; Chalbi Myriam 1 ; Dybal Elisa 1 ; Homps-Legrand Méline 1 ; Do, Cruzeiro Marcio 1 ; Vaiman, Daniel 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wolf, Jean-Philippe 2 ; Ziyyat Ahmed 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  Université de Paris, Institut Cochin, INSERM, CNRS, PARIS, France 
2  Université de Paris, Institut Cochin, INSERM, CNRS, PARIS, France; Service d’Histologie, d’Embryologie, Biologie de la Reproduction, AP-HP, Hôpital Cochin, PARIS, France (GRID:grid.411784.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0274 3893) 
3  Université de Paris, Institut Cochin, INSERM, CNRS, PARIS, France (GRID:grid.411784.f); Service d’Histologie, d’Embryologie, Biologie de la Reproduction, AP-HP, Hôpital Cochin, PARIS, France (GRID:grid.411784.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0274 3893) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62091-y
ProQuest document ID
2382601013
Copyright
This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.