Year : 2015 | Volume : 1 | Issue : 1 | Page : 8-19
Molecular mechanism of acrosome vesicle protein 1 (SP-10) intervened gene regulation: Organizational and functional analysis of ACRV1 gene
I. Alam†, S. Nehar‡
†Indian Biological Research Consultancy Services, Azad Hind Nagar, Harmu, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
‡Department of Zoology, Ranchi University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Received 9 Jan 2015; received in revised form 2 Mar 2015; accepted 24 Mar 2015
Corresponding author. I Alam
Abstract
The SP-10 is a testis specific differentiation antigen which arises during spermatogenesis and associated with acrosomal membrane and matrix of the sperm. The protein has 13 distinct isoforms ranging from 81 – 265 amino acids, coded by 13 transcripts of ACRV1 by alternative splicing or cryptic splicing. The largest of all isoforms (SP-10-1) comprises 53-72% of total SP-10. The C-terminal domain of SP-10-1 is highly conserved and performs similar tasks within species; it also contains the superfamily domain of snake toxin-like superfamily, which is characterized by three β-stranded finger-like loops. The N-terminal domain of SP-10-1 contains a signal sequence and a series of three hydrophilic amino acid motifs repeated as many as 17 times. The tests for phosphorylation indicate strong evidence of activity in the N-terminal domain of SP-10-1 which specifies the location of transactivation region in to the N-terminal domain. The hyperactivity of sperm after capacitation indicates the activity of many other proteins and genes linked with the process; hence it was assumed that the conserved C-terminal domain is a ligand-activated domain. Thus, there is likely to be a self-motivated interplay between protein-protein interaction and protein folding, involving the transactivation domain.
Keywords: Acrosomal Protein, Infertility, Male contraceptive, Post-translational Modification
