Trefoil Factor Family (TFF) Peptides by Werner Hoffmann

“…The TFF domain is a unique shuffled module which is also present in a number of mosaic proteins, such as zona pellucida proteins, sugar degrading enzymes and frog skin mucins. …”
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Sperm protein 17 is expressed in the sperm fibrous sheath by Albani Elena, Franceschini Barbara, Grizzi Fabio, Costa Francesco, Donetti Elena, Gagliano Nicoletta, Chiriva-Internati Maurizio, Levi-Setti Paolo E, Gioia Magda, Jenkins Marjorie, Cobos Everardo, Kast W Martin

“…</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest a possible role of Sp17 in regulating sperm maturation, capacitation, acrosomal reaction and interactions with the oocyte zona pellucida during the fertilization process. Further, the high degree of sequence conservation throughout its N-terminal half, and the presence of an A-kinase anchoring protein (AKAP)-binding motif within this region, suggest that Sp17 might play a regulatory role in a protein kinase A-independent AKAP complex in both germinal and somatic cells.…”
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Rupture Prediction for Microscopic Oocyte Images of Piezo Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection by Principal Component Analysis by Naomi Yagi, Hyodo Tsuji, Takashi Morimoto, Tomohiro Maekawa, Shimpei Mizuta, Tomomoto Ishikawa, Yutaka Hata

“…When applying the protocol of piezo intracytoplasmic sperm injection (Piezo-ICSI), it is very important to puncture the zona pellucida and the oocyte cytoplasmic membrane without rupturing the oocyte cytoplasmic membrane. …”
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Egg Envelope Glycoproteins ZP1 and ZP3 Mediate Sperm-Egg Interaction in the Japanese Quail by Yoshinobu Ichikawa, Mei Matsuzaki, Shusei Mizushima, Tomohiro Sasanami

“…In birds, the oocyte, which encounters the spermatozoa at the time of fertilization, is enclosed in a perivitelline membrane (pvm) constructed of several zona pellucida glycoproteins (ZP proteins: ZP1, ZP2, ZP3, ZP4 and ZPD). …”
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Automated identification of blastocyst regions at different development stages by Adolfo Flores-Saiffe Farias, Alejandro Chavez-Badiola, Gerardo Mendizabal-Ruiz, Roberto Valencia-Murillo, Andrew Drakeley, Jacques Cohen, Elizabeth Cardenas-Esparza

“…Abstract The selection of the best single blastocyst for transfer is typically based on the assessment of the morphological characteristics of the zona pellucida (ZP), trophectoderm (TE), blastocoel (BC), and inner cell-mass (ICM), using subjective and observer-dependent grading protocols. …”
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Oocyte-specific deletion of complex and hybrid N-glycans leads to defects in preovulatory follicle and cumulus mass development. by Williams, S, Stanley, P

“…We have previously shown that females with oocyte-specific deletion of a floxed Mgat1 gene using a zona pellucida protein 3 (ZP3)Cre transgene produce fewer pups primarily due to a reduction in ovulation rate. …”

Oocyte-specific deletion of Pten in mice reveals a stage-specific function of PTEN/PI3K signaling in oocytes in controlling follicular activation. by Krishna Jagarlamudi, Lian Liu, Deepak Adhikari, Deepak Adhikari, Pradeep Reddy, Annika Idahl, Ulrika Ottander, Eva Lundin, Kui Liu

“…To investigate whether PI3K signaling in oocytes of primary and further developed follicles also plays a role at later stages in follicular development and ovulation, we conditionally deleted the Pten gene from oocytes of primary and further developed follicles by using transgenic mice expressing zona pellucida 3 (Zp3) promoter-mediated Cre recombinase. …”
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Remodeling of the plasma membrane in preparation for sperm-egg recognition: roles of acrosomal proteins by Nongnuj Tanphaichitr, Kessiri Kongmanas, Hathairat Kruevaisayawan, Arpornrad Saewu, Clarissa Sugeng, Jason Fernandes, Puneet Souda, Jonathan B Angel, Kym F Faull, R John Aitken, Julian Whitelegge, Daniel Hardy, Trish Berger, Mark Baker

“…The interaction of sperm with the egg′s extracellular matrix, the zona pellucida (ZP) is the first step of the union between male and female gametes. …”
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Role of Oocyte Morphological Abnormality Rates on the Embryo Development and Implantation by Bulent Emre Bilgic, Cigdem Yayla Abide, Enis Ozkaya, Tayfun Kutlu, Sule Ayla, Ilhan Sanverdi, Gulden Tunali, Erdal Yucel, Savas Kanbur

“…STUDY DESIGN: Oocyte morphological abnormalities including oocyte size, elliptical shape, vacuole, plain polar body, fragmented polar body, large perivitellin space, perivitellin debris, central granulation, dense central granulation, inclusion body, thick zona pellucida, clusters of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, easy needle insertion and dark cytoplasm were determined for each oocyte. …”
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Mechanics of mouse blastocyst hatching revealed by a hydrogel-based microdeformation assay by Leonavicius, K, Royer, C, Preece, C, Davies, B, Biggins, J, Srinivas, S

“…Mammalian embryos are surrounded by an acellular shell, the zona pellucida. Hatching out of the zona is crucial for implantation and continued development of the embryo. …”

Modelling a tethered mammalian sperm cell undergoing hyperactivation. by Curtis, M, Kirkman-Brown, J, Connolly, T, Gaffney, E

“…The latter beat pattern is part of the capacitation process whereby sperm prepare for the prospective penetration of the zona pellucida and fusion with the egg. Hyperactivation is often observed to initiate as sperm escape from epithelial and ciliary bindings formed within the isthmic regions of the female oviducts, leading to a conjecture in the literature that this waveform is mechanically important for sperm escape. …”

Drosophila dumpy is a gigantic extracellular protein required to maintain tension at epidermal-cuticle attachment sites. by Wilkin, M, Becker, M, Mulvey, D, Phan, I, Chao, A, Cooper, K, Chung, H, Campbell, I, Baron, M, MacIntyre, R

“…Dumpy represents an extreme form of modular protein evolution, containing 308 epidermal growth factor (EGF) modules, interspersed with a new module class, DPY, and terminating in a crosslinking zona pellucida domain and membrane anchor sequence. We determined the three-dimensional structure of the DPY module by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and found that it forms a disulphide-stabilised beta sheet motif, capable of linking end-to-end with EGF modules to form a fibre. …”

The current practice of assisted hatching for embryos in fertility centres: a general survey by Liu, Y, Jones, C, Coward, K

“…Although laser pulses have become the predominant technique for AH, significant variation existed in the precise strategy. Zona pellucida (ZP) drilling was the main method for AHpBP, whilst both ZP drilling and ZP thinning were applied equally for AHpET. …”

Cloning of Perivitelline Membrane Protein; ZP1 in Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) by Mamoru Ohtsuki, Gen Hiyama, Norio Kansaku, Hiroshi Ogawa, Makoto Mori, Tomohiro Sasanami

“…In aves, the perivitelline membrane is an extracellular matrix surrounding the oocyte at the time of ovulation, and is composed of several glycoproteins belonging to the zona pellucida (ZP) gene family. ZP1 and ZPC have been identified as the major components of the perivitelline membrane in quail and chicken. …”
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New cellular imaging of oocytes and preimplantation embryos using Lumitein™: Evaluation of oocyte quality and new information on protein dynamics within the perivitelline space dur... by Hiroka OKAJI, Kenta TETSUKA, Ren WATANABE, Satoshi KISHIGAMI

“…The extracellular matrix between the oocyte and zona pellucida (ZP) plays an important role in mammalian fertilization and preserves the specific environment of the perivitelline space (PVS) during the development of a preimplantation embryo after fertilization. …”
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Three-dimensional live imaging of bovine embryos by optical coherence tomography by Yasumitsu MASUDA, Ryo HASEBE, Yasushi KUROMI, Masayoshi KOBAYASHI, Misaki IWAMOTO, Mitsugu HISHINUMA, Tetsuya OHBAYASHI, Ryo NISHIMURA

“…Twenty-two parameters, including thickness and volumes of the inner cell mass, trophectoderm, and zona pellucida, and volumes of blastocoel and whole embryo, were quantified from 3D images. …”
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Effects of GnRHa treatment during vitellogenesis on the reproductive physiology of thermally challenged female Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) by Kelli Anderson, Ned Pankhurst, Harry King, Abigail Elizur

“…Transcription of vitellogenin, and zona pellucida B and C was not enhanced in GnRHa-treated fish relative to untreated fish at 22 °C, presumably due to observed suppression of plasma E2. …”
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RNA-Seq study of in vivo-produced single male and female bovine blastocysts by Baoshan Cui, Jie Wang, Fei Huang, Nan Li, Qinghua Gao

“…This study determines the sex of embryos using a micro-injection pipette to collect a few blastomeres through the Zona pellucida. The remaining blastomeres were used for single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis on the Illumina platform, followed by differential expression analysis, Gene Ontology (GO) function analysis, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. …”
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The testicular and epididymal expression profile of PLCζ in mouse and human does not support its role as a sperm-borne oocyte activating factor. by Mahmoud Aarabi, Yang Yu, Wei Xu, Man Y Tse, Stephen C Pang, Young-Joo Yi, Peter Sutovsky, Richard Oko

“…In vitro fertilization (IVF) revealed that PLCζ is no longer detectable after the acrosome reaction occurs on the surface of the zona pellucida and thus is not incorporated into the oocyte cytoplasm for activation. …”
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The proteolysis of ZP proteins is essential to control cell membrane structure and integrity of developing tracheal tubes in Drosophila by Leonard Drees, Susi Schneider, Dietmar Riedel, Reinhard Schuh, Matthias Behr

“…We show in Drosophila that the zona pellucida (ZP) domain protein Piopio interacts and cooperates with the ZP protein Dumpy at tracheal cells. …”
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