Proteomic characterization and evolutionary analyses of zona pellucida domain-containing proteins in the egg coat of the cephalochordate, Branchiostoma belcheri.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Zona pellucida domain-containing proteins (ZP proteins) have been identified as the principle constituents of the egg coat (EC) of diverse metazoan taxa, including jawed vertebrates, urochordates and molluscs that span hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary divergence. Although ZP proteins generally contain the zona pellucida (ZP) structural modules to fulfill sperm recognition and EC polymerization functions during fertilization, the primary sequences of the ZP proteins from the above-mentioned animal classes are drastically different, which makes it difficult to assess the evolutionary relationships of ZP proteins. To understand the origin of vertebrate ZP proteins, we characterized the egg coat components of Branchiostoma belcheri, an invertebrate species that

SUBMITTER: Xu Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3543715 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature