PROSITE logo

PROSITE documentation PDOC00758
Spermadhesins family signatures


Description

A family of mammalian sperm proteins has been recently characterized [1,2]. The proteins that are currently known to belong to this family are:

  • Pig spermadhesins AQN-1, AQN-3 and AWN-1. These proteins are synthesized by the sexual accessory glands and becomes attached to the sperm surface at the time of ejaculation. They bind to the ZP-glycoproteins and to heparin and seems to inhibit serine protease inhibitors.
  • Bovine acidic seminal fluid protein (ASFP), which seems to be growth factor with effects on ovarian granulosa cells.
  • Pig major seminal plasma glycoproteins PSP-I and PSP-II.
  • Bovine seminal plasma protein Z13.

As shown in the following schematic representation these proteins, which have from 110 to 130 amino acid residues, contain four conserved cysteines involved in two disulfide bonds.

                +---------+           +---------+
                |         |           |         |
            xxxxCxxxxxxxxxCxxxxxxxxxxxCxxxxxxxxxCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ************          ***********
'C': conserved cysteine involved in a disulfide bond.
'*': position of the patterns.

Structurally, the spermadhesins consist of a CUB domain [3] (see <PDOC00908>).

Last update:

May 2004 / Text revised.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Technical section

PROSITE methods (with tools and information) covered by this documentation:

SPERMADHESIN_1, PS00985; Spermadhesins family signature 1  (PATTERN)

SPERMADHESIN_2, PS00986; Spermadhesins family signature 2  (PATTERN)


References

1AuthorsCalvete J.J. Solis D. Sanz L. Diaz-Maurino T. Schafer W. Mann K. Topfer-Petersen E.
TitleCharacterization of two glycosylated boar spermadhesins.
SourceEur. J. Biochem. 218:719-725(1993).
PubMed ID8269963

2AuthorsKwok S.C.M. Yang D. Dai G. Soares M.J. Chen S. McMurtry J.P.
TitleMolecular cloning and sequence analysis of two porcine seminal proteins, PSP-I and PSP-II: new members of the spermadhesin family.
SourceDNA Cell Biol. 12:605-610(1993).
PubMed ID8397818

3AuthorsBork P. Beckmann G.
TitleThe CUB domain. A widespread module in developmentally regulated proteins.
SourceJ. Mol. Biol. 231:539-545(1993).
PubMed ID8510165



PROSITE is copyrighted by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, see prosite_license.html.

Miscellaneous

View entry in original PROSITE document format
View entry in raw text format (no links)