Induction of acrosome reaction by 4-Br-A23187 alters the glycoproteomic profile of boar spermatozoa.

Protein glycosylation is a post-translational modification involved in wide range of biological processes. In mammalian spermatozoa this modification has been identified in numerous proteins, and membrane glycoproteins are involved in the fertilization process. The objective of the present study was to identify changes in protein glycosylation after acrosome reaction (AR) induction using the 4-Br-A23187 ionophore. Our results showed that treatment with 10 μM of 4-Br-A23187 for 20 min significantly increased the percentage of live acrosome-reacted spermatozoa compared to the control (69.8 ± 0.8 vs. 6.4 ± 0.5; mean % ± SEM, respectively). Also, we observed an increase in 32 kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein (p32) and a decrease in serine/threonine phosphorylation of the protein kinase A substrates (phospho-PKA-substrates) after ionophore treatment. Furthermore, changes in glycosylated proteins following AR induction were analyzed using different HRP-conjugated lectins (GNA, DSA, and SNA), revealing changes in mannose and sialic acid residues. Proteomic analysis of isolated proteins using GNA lectin revealed that 50 proteins exhibited significantly different abundance (q-value < 0.01). Subsequent analysis using Uniprot database identified 39 downregulated and 11 upregulated proteins in the presence of 4-Br-A23187. Notably, six of these proteins were classified as transmembrane proteins, namely LRRC37A/B like protein 1 C-terminal domain-containing protein, Membrane metalloendopeptidase like 1, VWFA domain-containing protein, Syndecan, Membrane spanning 4-domains A14 and Serine protease 54. This study shows a novel protocol to induce acrosome reaction in boar spermatozoa and identifies new transmembrane proteins containing mannose residues. Further work is needed to elucidate the role of these proteins in sperm-oocyte fusion.

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Declaration of competing interest The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.