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Hidden Dance of Sperm and Egg: Revealed by AI
Reviewed by Dr Srikanth Ponnada
Hidden Dance of Sperm and Egg: Revealed by AI
Shortly after the AlphaFold team was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, a pioneering study employed their Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to provide significant insights into the fertilization process. The study elucidates the intricate molecular connections facilitating the fusing of sperm and egg, a crucial process in sexual reproduction. This research elucidates a key biological mechanism, enhancing our comprehension of reproductive science.
The foundation of sexual reproduction is fertilization, which depends on the binding and fusion of sperm and egg. While a number of proteins are known to be important in this process, the precise molecular mechanisms have not been fully understood. A recent study using the AlphaFold-Multimer tool has identified a protein called Tmem81 as part of a conserved trimeric sperm complex along with essential fertilization factors Izumo1 and Spaca6. This complex is essential for male fertility in zebrafish and mice, and in zebrafish, it forms the binding site for the egg fertilization factor Bouncer. The study offers a comprehensive model for fertilization across vertebrates, demonstrating how a conserved sperm complex interacts with various egg proteins, Bouncer in fish and JUNO in mammals, to promote sperm-egg binding.
Dance of Sperm and Egg Visualized Image
Image: IstockResearchers discovered the essential protein Tmem81 as a crucial role in fertilization for zebrafish and mice. This protein, in conjunction with Izumo1 and Spaca6, constitutes a trimeric sperm complex essential for sperm stability during spermatogenesis. Tmem81 is essential for trimer formation, but it may also possess roles beyond stability, as it is the most preserved component of the complex. Notably, Izumo1 and Spaca6 may function independently, since research indicates that IZUMO1 can dimerize upon attaching to an egg and facilitate cell fusion. The specific function of trimer formation in controlling these activities is under examination.
Reference and Suggested Reading
Deneke, V.E., Blaha, A., Lu, Y., Suwita, J.P., Draper, J.M., Phan, C.S., Panser, K., Schleiffer, A., Jacob, L., Humer, T. and Stejskal, K., 2024. A conserved fertilization complex bridges sperm and egg in vertebrates. Cell. 10.1016/j.cell.2024.09.035.
Authored by Dr Srikanth Ponnada
Dr Srikanth Ponnada, PhD, MRSC
-CEO, Editor & Senior Scientific Content Author
Dr. Ponnada, is a senior researcher at VSB-Technical University-Ostrava; he previously worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Prof. Herring’s group, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines-U.S.A, as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur-Rajasthan. His Ph.D. research focused on “Functional Materials and Their Electrochemical Applications in Batteries and Sensors.” His research area covers Functional Materials Synthesis, Polymer electrolyte membranes, Device fabrication, conversion devices (Fuel cells and Electrolyzers), Energy storage, Electrocatalysis, Electrochemical Sensors, Artificial Intelligence, and LLM (generative AI) in energy. He has also held research positions at CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, where he worked on lead-free perovskite-based photovoltaics and electrocatalysis, and at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, where he contributed to research on gold nanoparticle-assisted heterogeneous catalysis and alcohol oxidation reactions. Also, he is an Early Career Member at the Electrochemical Society (ECS), a Member at AIChE and a Life Member at the Indian Carbon Society (ICS), also an astronomy and astrophotography enthusiast.
