Membrane Remodeling and Matrix Dispersal Intermediates During Mammalian Acrosomal Exocytosis.

ABSTRACT: To become fertilization-competent, mammalian sperm must undergo a complex series of biochemical and morphological changes in the female reproductive tract. These changes, collectively called capacitation, culminate in the exocytosis of the acrosome, a large vesicle overlying the nucleus. Acrosomal exocytosis is not an all-or-nothing event but rather a regulated process in which vesicle cargo disperses gradually. However, the structural mechanisms underlying this controlled release remain undefined. In addition, unlike other exocytotic events, fusing membranes are shed as vesicles; the cell thus loses the entire anterior two-thirds of its plasma membrane and yet remains intact, while the remaining nonvesiculated plasma membrane becomes fusogenic. Precisely how cell integrity is maintained t

SUBMITTER: Leung MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8708559 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature