IXth International Conference on Boar Semen Preservation 2019

Boar Semen Improvement through Sperm Capacitation Management, With Emphasis on Zinc Ion Homeostasis (61171)

Peter Sutovsky 1 2 , Karl Kerns 1 , Michal Zigo 1 , Dalen Zuidema 1
  1. Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia M, MO, United States
  2. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

Critical to fertilization success, sperm capacitation within the female oviductal sperm reservoir endows mammalian spermatozoa with hyperactivated motility and capacity to fertilize. An elaborate cascade of signaling events during capacitation guides the redistribution of sperm plasma membrane seminolipid and cholesterol, Ca-influx and increases tyrosine phosphorylation to promote hyperactivated motility. Such events result in the remodeling of sperm acrosome, increased fluidity and fusability of plasma membrane, shedding of surface-adsorbed seminal plasma proteins that glue sperm heads to the oviductal epithelium and ultimately the release of hyperactivated spermatozoa from oviductal sperm reservoir. Discovered recently, the capacitation-induced sperm zinc ion efflux and resultant zinc signatures are reflective of sperm capacitation status and fertilizing ability, inspiring the retrospection of zinc ion functions in boar and other species’ sperm physiology and fertility. Such review also highlights the merit of domestic boar as a biomedical model for spermatology and fertilization research. Relevant to livestock industry quest for better fertility management, the benefits of zinc ion supplementation through nutrition and direct addition to extended semen are discussed in the context of livestock artificial insemination (AI).  Ideas are shared on future technologies for zinc management in AI doses and research on the sperm zinc-interacting proteome.