title: Lyzl4, a novel mouse sperm-related protein, is involved in fertilization.
abstract: The role of Chicken-type (c-type) lysozyme, a prototype lysozyme, in immunity has been characterized in many organisms. In this study, we cloned a novel c-type lysozyme-like gene, Lyzl4, which was located on mouse chromosome 9F4 and encoded 145 amino acids with a putative signal peptide and a protease cleavage site. The mature recombinant Lyzl4 protein expressed in yeast did not show the bacteriolytic activity. Sequence alignment analysis demonstrated that 3 of the 20 invariant residues in c-type lysozymes were changed in Lyzl4. One of the 'changed' amino acids (D52G) is located in the catalytic domain. Lyzl4 mRNA was selectively expressed in testis and epididymis in adult mice, with varying expression level across different developmental stages. High level of Lyzl4 protein was found on the spermatozoa of acrosomal region and principal piece of tail. Immuno-neutralization of Lyzl4 protein in spermatozoa with its specific antibody significantly decreased in vitro fertilization percentage in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that Lyzl4 might be important for fertilization.
authors: Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors: Ruilin
authors: R
authors: Sun
authors: Ruling
authors: R
authors: Shen
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: Guojiang
authors: G
authors: Xu
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Chi
authors: Limei
authors: L
authors: Li
authors: Jianke
authors: J
authors: Ren
authors: Zhugang
authors: Z
authors: Wang
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Fei
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D002460:Cell Line; D017931:DNA Primers; D005306:Fertilization / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009113:Muramidase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D009113:Muramidase