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Master's Theses

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

2011

Capacitation

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Characterization Of The Equine Spermadhesin Hsp-7 Found On Stallion Spermatozoa As It Relates To Stallion Fertility And Sperm Capacitation, Melodee Kathleen Heidmiller Mar 2011

Characterization Of The Equine Spermadhesin Hsp-7 Found On Stallion Spermatozoa As It Relates To Stallion Fertility And Sperm Capacitation, Melodee Kathleen Heidmiller

Master's Theses

Equine spermadhesin HSP-7 is a 14 kDa protein isolated from stallion seminal plasma and present on the surface of spermatozoa. HSP-7 displays carbohydrate and zona-pellucida binding properties, but the physiological role in equine fertilization is not well defined. HSP-7 has 98% amino acid sequence homology with the well-studied boar spermadhesin, AWN. Currently, these two proteins are considered to have the same reproductive function. Immunofluorescence studies presented here show that the stallion and boar spermadhesins are localized to different segments on spermatozoa. The variation in molecular compartmentalization of spermadhesin molecules in different species suggests that these structurally related proteins could be …