Mechanisms of calcium oscillations in mouse and human eggs

Long lasting calcium (Ca2+) oscillations are necessary and sufficient for mammalian egg activation and early embryological development. In mammals, phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ) has been identified as the likely endogenous trigger of Ca2+ oscillations at fertilization. Some cases of male factor infertility have been associated with the absence / reduced or presence a mutant form of PLCζ. In these cases sperm fails to activate eggs after intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Artificial egg activation is the potential way to trigger Ca2+ oscillations and egg activation. Strontium (Sr2+) is the main artificial agent for this purpose in rodent eggs. The work in this Thesis aims to examine the mechanism of PLCζ or Sr2+ ions to trigger Ca2+ oscillations in mammalian eggs. It was not clear how Sr2+ causes Ca2+ oscillations and why it is only effective in rodents but not human eggs or domestic animals. My studies show that Sr2+ is effective in causing Ca2+ oscillations in mouse eggs over a range of concentrations, but that its actions are influenced by the osmolarity of the medium. Low osmolarity enhances the ability of low concentrations of Sr2+ to cause Ca2+ oscillations. Further investigation revealed that Sr2+ influx is mainly through the reverse mode of the Na+/Ca2+ exchange protein (NCX) which can be controlled by the membrane potential and Na+ gradient across the plasma membrane. Preliminary studies investigated the ability of a modified Sr2+ media that maximizes reverse mode NCX to trigger Ca2+ changes in human eggs. In other studies, various PLCζ-luciferase cRNAs were injected into mouse and human eggs. PLCζ expression in mouse eggs was measured by imaging light due to luciferase iv activity, and Ca2+-oscillations were monitored with Ca2+ sensitive fluorescent dye. Aspects of the structure of PLCζ and the effects and the recent discovery of PLCζ sequence mutations were investigated. Preliminary studies were also carried out to test the ability of recombinant PLCζ protein to cause Ca2+ oscillations in mammalian eggs. It is hoped that these studies might open up new therapies for some male factor infertility couples that acconts 1-5% of failed ICSI

The role of ATP in the differential ability of Sr2+ to trigger Ca2+ oscillations in mouse and human eggs

At fertilization in mice and humans, the activation of the egg is caused by a series of repetitive Ca2+ oscillations which are initiated by phospholipase-C(zeta)ζ that generates inositol-1-4-5-trisphophate (InsP3). Ca2+ oscillations and egg activation can be triggered in mature mouse eggs by incubation in Sr2+ containing medium, but this does not appear to be effective in human eggs. Here we have investigated the reason for this apparent difference using mouse eggs, and human eggs that failed to fertilize after IVF or ICSI. Mouse eggs incubated in Ca2+-free, Sr2+-containing medium immediately underwent Ca2+ oscillations but human eggs consistently failed to undergo Ca2+ oscillations in the same Sr2+ medium. We tested the InsP3-receptor (IP3R) sensitivity directly by photo-release of caged InsP3 and found that mouse eggs were about 10 times more sensitive to InsP3 than human eggs. There were no major differences in the Ca2+ store content between mouse and human eggs. However, we found that the ATP concentration was consistently higher in mouse compared to human eggs. When ATP levels were lowered in mouse eggs by incubation in pyruvate-free medium, Sr2+ failed to cause Ca2+ oscillations. When pyruvate was added back to these eggs, the ATP levels increased and Ca2+ oscillations were induced. This suggests that ATP modulates the ability of Sr2+ to stimulate IP3R-induced Ca2+ release in eggs. We suggest that human eggs may be unresponsive to Sr2+ medium because they have a lower level of cytosolic ATP

Male infertility-linked point mutation disrupts the Ca2+ oscillation-inducing and PIP2 hydrolysis activity of sperm PLCζ

A male infertility-linked human PLCζ (phospholipase Cζ) mutation introduced into mouse PLCζ completely abolishes both in vitro PIP2 (phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate) hydrolysis activity and the ability to trigger in vivo Ca2+ oscillations in mouse eggs. Wild-type PLCζ initiated a normal pattern of Ca2+ oscillations in eggs in the presence of 10-fold higher mutant PLCζ, suggesting that infertility is not mediated by a dominant-negative mechanism

Novel regulation of PLCζ activity via its XY-linker

The XY-linker region of somatic cell PLC (phospholipase)-β, -γ, -δ and -ϵ isoforms confers potent catalytic inhibition, suggesting a common auto-regulatory role. Surprisingly, the sperm PLCζ XY-linker does not mediate auto-inhibition. Unlike for somatic PLCs, the absence of the PLCζ XY-linker significantly diminishes both in vitro PIP2 (phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate) hydrolysis and in vivo Ca2+-oscillation-inducing activity, revealing evidence for a novel PLCζ enzymatic mechanism

Phospholipase Cζ binding to PtdIns(4,5)P2 requires the XY-linker region

Phospholipase C-zeta (PLCζ) is a strong candidate for the mammalian sperm-derived factor that triggers the Ca2+ oscillations required for egg activation at fertilization. PLCζ lacks a PH domain, which targets PLCδ1 to the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) substrate in the plasma membrane. Previous studies failed to detect PLCζ in the plasma membrane, hence the means of PLCζ binding to PtdIns(4,5)P2 is unclear. We find that the PLCζ XY linker, but not the C2 domain, exhibits robust binding to PtdIns(4,5)P2 or to liposomes containing near-physiological levels of PtdIns(4,5)P2. The role of positively charged residues within the XY linker was addressed by sequentially substituting alanines for three lysine residues, K374, K375 and K377. Microinjection of these mutants into mouse eggs enabled their Ca2+ oscillation-inducing activities to be compared with wild-type PLCζ. The XY-linker mutant proteins were purified and the in vitro PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis and binding properties were monitored. Successive reduction of net positive charge within the PLCζ XY linker significantly affects both in vivo Ca2+-oscillation-inducing activity and in vitro PtdIns(4,5)P2 interaction of mouse PLCζ. Our data suggest that positively charged residues within the XY linker play an important role in the PLCζ interaction with PtdIns(4,5)P2, a crucial step in generating the Ca2+ activation signal that is essential for fertilization in mammals

Human PLCζ exhibits superior fertilization potency over mouse PLCζ in triggering the Ca2+ oscillations required for mammalian oocyte activation

A sperm-specific phospholipase C-zeta (PLCζ) is believed to play an essential role in oocyte activation during mammalian fertilization. Sperm PLCζ has been shown to trigger a prolonged series of repetitive Ca2+ transients or oscillations in oocytes that precede activation. This remarkable intracellular Ca2+ signalling phenomenon is a distinctive characteristic observed during in vitro fertilization by sperm. Previous studies have notably observed an apparent differential ability of PLCζ from disparate mammalian species to trigger Ca2+ oscillations in mouse oocytes. However, the molecular basis and confirmation of the apparent PLCζ species difference in activity remains to be provided. In the present study, we provide direct evidence for the superior effectiveness of human PLCζ relative to mouse PLCζ in generating Ca2+ oscillations in mouse oocytes. In addition, we have designed and constructed a series of human/mouse PLCζ chimeras to enable study of the potential role of discrete PLCζ domains in conferring the enhanced Ca2+ signalling potency of human PLCζ. Functional analysis of these human/mouse PLCζ domain chimeras suggests a novel role of the EF-hand domain in the species-specific differences in PLCζ activity. Our empirical observations are compatible with a basic mathematical model for the Ca2+ dependence of generating cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations in mammalian oocytes by sperm PLCζ