TOWARDS MOLECULAR MECHANISMS FOR GAMETE ADHESION AND FUSION DURING MAMMALIAN FERTILIZATION

The process of fertilization is fundamental to the maintenance of life . The ability of unfertilized eggs and free-swimming sperm to recogniz e, adhere to, and fuse with each other are vital aspects of the fertil ization process. Significant progress has been made recently in identi fying and characterizing (glyco)proteins that are associated with the surface of mammalian gametes and that support adhesion and fusion of e ggs and sperm. As a result, there are currently reasons to believe tha t, in mammals, species-specific gamete adhesion is carbohydrate-mediat ed and gamete fusion is integrin-mediated.