Wassarman Laboratory

Selected Recent Primary Publications (1996-2006)

Liu, C., Litscher, E.S., Mortillo, S., Sakai, Y., Kinloch, R.A., Stewart, C.L., and Wassarman, P.M. (1996). Targeted disruption of the mZP3 gene results in production of eggs lacking a zona pellucida and infertility in female mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 93: 5431-5436.

Litscher, E.S. and Wassarman, P.M. (1996). Characterization of a mouse ZP3-derived glycopeptide, gp55, that exhibits sperm receptor and acrosome reaction-inducing activity in vitro. Biochemistry 35: 3980-3986.

Wassarman, P.M., Qi, H., and Litscher, E.S. (1997). Mutant female mice carrying a single mZP3 allele produce eggs with a thin zona pellucida, but reproduce normally. Proc. Royal Soc., Biological Sciences 264: 323-328.

Chen, J., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M. (1998). Inactivation of mouse sperm receptor, mZP3, by site-directed mutagenesis of individual serine residues located at the combining site for sperm. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 95: 6193-6197.

Litscher, E.S., Qi, H., and Wassarman, P.M. (1999). Mouse zona pellucida glycoproteins mZP2 and mZP3 undergo carboxyl-terminal proteolytic processing in growing oocytes. Biochemistry 38: 12280-12287.

Qi, H. and Wassarman, P.M. (1999). Secretion of zona pellucida glycoprotein mZP2 by growing oocytes from mZP3+/+ and mZP3-/- mice. Developmental Genetics 25: 95-102.

Williams, Z. and Wassarman, P.M. (2001). Secretion of mouse ZP3, the sperm receptor, requires cleavage of its polypeptide at a consensus furin cleavage-site. Biochemistry 40: 929-937.

Cohen, N. and Wassarman, P.M. (2001). Association of egg zona pellucida glycoprotein mZP3 with sperm protein sp56 during fertilization in mice. Intl. J. Dev. Biol. 45: n569-576.

Qi, H., Williams, Z., and Wassarman, P.M. (2002). Secretion and assembly of zona pellucida glycoproteins by growing mouse oocytes microinjected with epitope-tagged cDNAs for mZP2 and mZP3. Mol. Biol. Cell 13: 212-223.

Jovine, L., Qi, H., Williams, Z., Litscher, E., and Wassarman, P.M. (2002). The ZP domain is a conserved module for polymerization of extracellular proteins. Nature Cell Biology 4: 457-461.

Williams, Z., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M. (2003). Conversion of serine to threonine residues at the sperm combining-site of mZP3 does not affect sperm receptor activity. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 301: 813-818.

Jovine, L., Qi, H., Williams, Z., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M., (2004). A duplicated motif controls assembly of zona pellucida domain proteins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 101: 5922-5927.

Darie, C.C., Biniossek, M., Jovine, L., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M. (2004). Structural characterization of fish egg vitelline envelope proteins by mass spectrometry. Biochemistry 42: 7459-7478.

Darie, C.C., Biniossek, M.L., Thumfart, J.O., Gawinowicz, M.A., Milgrom, Y., Jovine, L., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M. (2005). Mass spectrometric evidence that proteolytic processing of rainbow trout egg vitelline envelope proteins takes place on the egg. J. Biological Chemistry 260: 37585-37598.

Williams, Z., Litscher, E.S., Jovine, L., and Wassarman, P.M. (2006). Polypeptide encoded by mouse ZP3 exon-7 is necessary and sufficient for sperm binding in vitro. J. Cellular Physiology 207: 30-39.

Jovine, L., Janssen, W.G., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M. (2006). The PLAC1-homology region of the ZP domain is sufficient for protein polymerization. BMC Biochemistry 7: 11 (9 pp.).

Selected Invited Reviews (1987-2005)

Wassarman, P.M. (1987). The biology and chemistry of fertilization. Science 235: 553-560.

Wassarman, P.M. (1987). Early events in mammalian fertilization. Annu. Rev. Cell Biol. 3: 109-142.

Wassarman, P.M. (1988). Zona pellucida glycoproteins. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 57: 415-442.

Wassarman, P.M. (1988). Fertilization in mammals. Scientific American 255: 78-84.

Wassarman, P.M. (1990). Profile of a mammalian sperm receptor. Development 108: 1-17.

Wassarman, P.M. (1993). Mammalian eggs, sperm, and fertilization: dissimilar cells with a common goal. Seminars Devel. Biol. 4: 189-198.

Wassarman, P.M. and Litscher, E. (1995). Sperm-egg recognition mechanisms in mammals. Curr. Topics Devel. Biol. 30: 1-19.

Wassarman, P.M. (1995). Towards molecular mechanisms for gamete adhesion and fusion during mammalian fertilization. Curr. Opinion Cell Biol. 7: 658-664.

Wassarman, P.M., Liu, C., and Litscher, E.S. (1996). Constructing the mammalian egg zona pellucida: Some new pieces of an old puzzle. J. Cell Science 109: 2001-2004.

Wassarman, P.M. (1999). Mammalian fertilization: Molecular aspects of gamete adhesion, exocytosis, and fusion. Cell 96: 175-183.

Wassarman, P.M., Jovine, L., and Litscher, E.S. (2001). A profile of fertilization in mammals. Nature Cell Biol.  3: E59-E64.

Wassarman, P.M. (2001). Mammalian fertilization. In Encyclopedia of Genetics 2 690-695 (S. Brenner and J. Miller, eds.), Academic Press.

Wassarman, P.M. (2002). Channels of communication in the ovary. Nature Cell Biol. 4(S1): S7-S9.

Jovine, L., Darie C.C., Litscher, E.S., and Wassarman, P.M. (2005). Zona pellucida domain proteins. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 74: 83-114.

Wassarman, P.M. (2005). Contribution of mouse egg zona pellucida glycoproteins to gamete recognition during fertilization. J. Cellular Physiology 204: 388-391.