Waraporn Kasekarn, Takeru Kanazawa, Kazuki Hori, Tomoyuki Tsuchiyama, Xue Lian, Estelle Garénaux, Kessiri Kongmanas, Nongnuj Tanphaichitr, Hiroshi Yasue, Chihiro Sato, Ken Kitajima
A highly glycosylated protein, which has unique, novel features in localization, structure, and potential function, is found in pig sperm, and named WGA-gp due to its high binding property with wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). WGA-gp is localized mainly in flagella and enriched in membrane microdomains or lipid rafts. It is not detected by ordinary protein staining methods due to a high content of both N- and O-glycans consisting of neutral monosaccharides. Interestingly, WGA-gp may be involved in intracellular Ca(2+) regulation...
September 28, 2012: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications