摘要
Fertilization is the culminating event in sexual reproduction and requires the recognition and fusion of the haploid sperm and egg to form a new diploid organism. Specificity in these recognition events is one reason why sperm and eggs from different species are not normally compatible. One notable exception is the unusual ability of zona-free eggs from the Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) to recognize and fuse with human sperm, a phenomenon that has been exploited to assess sperm quality in assisted fertility treatments. Following our recent finding that the interaction between the sperm and egg recognition receptors Izumo1 and Juno is essential for fertilization, we now demonstrate concordance between the ability of Izumo1 and Juno from different species to interact, and the ability of their isolated gametes to cross-fertilize each other in vitro. In particular, we show that Juno from the golden hamster can directly interact with human Izumo1. These data suggest that the interaction between Izumo1 and Juno plays an important role in cross-species gamete recognition, and may inform the development of improved prognostic tests that do not require the use of animals to guide the most appropriate fertility treatment for infertile couples.
摘要译文
受精是有性生殖的最终事件，需要识别和融合单倍体精子和卵子以形成新的二倍体生物。这些识别事件的特异性是来自不同物种的精子和卵通常不相容的一个原因。一个值得注意的例外是来自叙利亚金仓鼠（Mesocricetus auratus）的无透明蛋的识别和融合人类精子的异常能力，这种现象已被用于评估辅助生育治疗中的精子质量。根据我们最近的发现，精子和卵子识别受体Izumo1和Juno之间的相互作用对于受精是必不可少的，我们现在证明来自不同物种的Izumo1和Juno相互作用的能力之间的一致性，以及它们的分离配子交叉受精的能力相互体外。特别是，我们表明来自金色仓鼠的Juno可以直接与人类Izumo1互动。这些数据表明，Izumo1和Juno之间的相互作用在跨物种配子识别中起着重要作用，并且可能为改进的预后测试提供信息，这些测试不需要使用动物来指导不育夫妇最合适的生育治疗。
Enrica Bianchi;Gavin J. Wright. Cross-species fertilization: the hamster egg receptor, Juno, binds the human sperm ligand, Izumo1[J]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2015,370(1661)