Tracing sperm acrosome differentiation in the testis and maturation in the epididymis of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) with a 45-kDa acrosome-membrane-associated protein

Abstract

A 45-kDa protein was originally extracted from a depression, where the acrosome is lodged, on the anterior end of the sperm nucleus of ejaculated wallaby spermatozoa. Using immunofluorescent and confocal microscopes, this study demonstrates that the 45-kDa protein is persistently localized to the sperm acrosome throughout the periods of spermiogenesis, spermiation, epididymal maturation and ejaculation in the tammar wallaby. The distribution of the 45-kDa protein is always on the perimeter of the acrosome and associated with the acrosomal membrane, so that changes in the shape of the 45-kDa immunofluorescent labelling mirror changes in the shape of the acrosome during its differentiation in the testis and epididymis. Thus, the 45-kDa protein may be used as a molecular marker to study the marsupial acrosome differentiation and to chart the events of testicular and epididymal maturation of the spermatozoa. Furthermore, the behaviour of the 45-kDa protein during the immunostaining process suggests that this protein is a largely insoluble and detergent-resistant protein and may play an important role in attachment of the acrosome to the nucleus during sperm formation, similar to those inner acrosomal-membrane-associated proteins that have been reported in eutherian spermatozoa.