Egg-coat degradation

Vertebrate oocytes are coated with a special extracellular matrix termed egg-coat or Zona pellucida (ZP). Egg-coat is constituted by several ZP glycoproteins. In chicken fertilization, ejaculated sperm releases enzyme(s) to solubilize the ZP glycoprotein(s) for penetrating the egg-coat. In this study, we analyzed the solubilized ZP glycoprotein fragment. We also analyzed the glycosylation property of its fragment.