Effects of various enzymes on the ability of hamster egg plasma membranes to fuse with spermatozoa

✍ Scribed by Hirao, Y. ;Yanagimachi, R.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1978
• Weight: 547 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-7280
• DOI: 10.1002/mrd.1120010103

✦ Synopsis

To investigate which component of the plasma membrane of the hamster egg plays the central role in the sperfr-egg fusion, the egg membrane was treated with a variety of proteolytic, carbohydrate-hydrolyzing, lipid-hydrolyzing, and other enzymes. The only enzyme that markedly affected the ability of the egg membrane t o fuse with spermatozoa was phospholipase C. The lipid moieties of the egg plasma membrane (and possibly of the sperm membrane) must be of primary importance in sperm-egg fusion at fertilization.