Zona Pellucida Glycoproteins*
- Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029-6574
- 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: paul.wassarman{at}mssm.edu.
Abstract
All mammalian eggs are surrounded by a relatively thick extracellular coat, the zona pellucida, that plays vital roles during oogenesis, fertilization, and preimplantation development. The mouse zona pellucida consists of three glycoproteins that are synthesized solely by growing oocytes and assemble into long fibrils that constitute a matrix. Zona pellucida glycoproteins are responsible for species-restricted binding of sperm to unfertilized eggs, inducing sperm to undergo acrosomal exocytosis, and preventing sperm from binding to fertilized eggs. Many features of mammalian and non-mammalian egg coat polypeptides have been conserved during several hundred million years of evolution.
Footnotes
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↵2 The abbreviations used are: ZP, zona pellucida; ZPG, ZP glycoprotein; mZP, mouse ZP; hZP, human ZP; VE, vitelline envelope; VEG, VE glycoprotein; SS, signal sequence; CTP, C-terminal propeptide; ZPD, ZP domain; CFCS, consensus furin cleavage site; TMD, transmembrane domain; NTS, N-terminal subdomain; EHP, external hydrophobic patch; IHP, internal hydrophobic patch.
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↵* This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grant HD-35105. This minireview will be reprinted in the 2008 Minireview Compendium, which will be available in January, 2009.
- The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
