GENERATION OF ANTISERA AGAINST MOUSE AND HUMAN SYNTHETIC ZP3 PEPTIDES

The ZP3 protein is a zona pellucida glycoprotein which plays a major r ole in sperm binding and induction of the acrosome reaction. ZP3 prote ins occur in various mammalian zonae pellucidae; their primary structu res are highly conserved as revealed by cDNA cloning. We generated ant isera against synthetic peptides that are specific either for mouse ZP 3 (AS ZP3-9) or for human ZP3 (AS ZP3-14). The antisera specifically r ecognized their respective peptide employed as immunogen and did not c ross-react with control peptides. AS ZP3-9 detected ZP3 protein in iso lated mouse zona pellucida and oocytes, whereas AS ZP3-14 did not reac t with proteins in murine egg cells or zona pellucida. Our results ind icate that antisera against synthetic ZP3 peptides can be used as spec ific markers for the identification of individual ZP3 proteins in mous e and human oocytes. The antisera might be useful tools for the evalua tion of ZP3 location and function.