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DISTRIBUTION OF HYALURONIDASE IN THE RAM SPERMATOZOON

A.R.C. Unit of Reproductive Physiology and Biochemistry, 307 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0JQ

(Received 28th April 1975)

Hyaluronidase is widespread in the semen of mammals and high concentrations occur in bull and ram semen (Buruiana, 1956). It has been suggested (Stambaugh & Buckley, 1969; Hartree, 1971) that hyaluronidase may play a role in passage of spermatozoa through the zona pellucida, e.g. by modifying the structure of this membrane to make it more susceptible to the action of acrosin which is widely believed to be involved in the penetration process (Stambaugh et al., 1969; Zaneveld et al., 1970).

If hyaluronidase and acrosin were to act co-operatively on the zona pellucida it is likely that they would be similarly situated within the acrosome, and therefore the distribution of hyaluronidase in ram spermatozoa was investigated by the fractionation procedure described to study the distribution of acrosin in ram spermatozoa (Brown & Hartree, 1974).