TY  - JOUR
TI  - The structure of sulfated polysaccharides ensures a carbohydrate-based mechanism for species recognition during sea urchin fertilization 
AU  - Vilela-silva, Ana-CristinaE.S.
AU  - Hirohashi, Noritaka
AU  - Mourão, PauloA.S.
T2  - The International Journal of Developmental Biology
AB  - The evolution of barriers to inter-specific hybridization is a crucial step in the fertilization of free spawning marine invertebrates. In sea urchins, molecular recognition between sperm and egg ensures species recognition. Here we review the sulfated polysaccharide-based mechanism of sperm-egg recognition in this model organism. The jelly surrounding sea urchin eggs is not a simple accessory structure; it is molecularly complex and intimately involved in gamete recognition. It contains sulfated polysaccharides, sialoglycans and peptides. The sulfated polysaccharides have unique structures, composed of repetitive units of alpha-L-fucose or alpha-L-galactose, which differ among species in the sulfation pattern and/or the position of the glycosidic linkage. The egg jelly sulfated polysaccharides show species-specificity in inducing the sperm acrosome reaction, which is regulated by the structure of the saccharide chain and its sulfation pattern. Other components of the egg jelly do not possess acrosome reaction inducing activity, but sialoglycans act in synergy with the sulfated polysaccharide, potentiating its activity. The system we describe establishes a new view of cell-cell interaction in the sea urchin model system. Here, structural changes in egg jelly polysaccharides modulate cell-cell recognition and species-specificity leading to exocytosis of the acrosome. Therefore, sulfated polysaccharides, in addition to their known functions as growth factors, coagulation factors and selectin binding partners, also function in fertilization. The differentiation of these molecules may play a role in sea urchin speciation.
PY  - 2008
DO  - 10.1387/ijdb.072531av
VL  - 52
IS  - 5-6
SP  - 551
EP  - 559
J2  - Int. J. Dev. Biol.
LA  - en
SN  - 0214-6282
SN  - 1696-3547
UR  - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/072531av
Y2  - 2024/11/21/17:08:03
ER  -