Characterization of a human glycoprotein with a potential role in sperm-egg fusion: cDNA cloning, immunohistochemical localization, and chromosomal assignment of the gene (AEGL1).

Acidic epididymal glycoprotein (AEG), thus far identified only in rodents, is one of the sperm surface proteins involved in the fusion of the sperm and egg plasma membranes. In the present study, we describe the isolation and characterization of cDNA encoding a human glycoprotein related to AEG. Although this protein, designated ARP (AEG-related protein), is not the ortholog of rodent AEG, it resembles AEG in that it is an epididymal secretory glycoprotein that binds to the postacrosomal region of the sperm head. The fact that no AEG mRNA can be detected in the human epididymis suggests that ARP might be the functional counterpart of rodent AEG. The gene encoding ARP (AEGL1) was mapped by fluorescence in situ hybridization to 6p21.1-p21.2. This result indicates that AEGL1 and the mouse gene for AEG are located in the chromosomal segments with conserved syntenies.