| First Author | Hashimoto O | Year | 2005 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 102 |
| Issue | 15 | Pages | 5426-31 |
| PubMed ID | 15809424 | Mgi Jnum | J:97812 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3576437 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.0409533102 |
| Citation | Hashimoto O, et al. (2005) Posttranslational processing of mouse and human BMP-15: Potential implication in the determination of ovulation quota. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102(15):5426-31 |
| abstractText | There has been significant attention to the growing recognition that oocytes have a critical capacity to organize and govern surrounding somatic cells. Bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP-15) is an oocyte-secreted factor that has raised particular interest due to its established role in determining ovulation quota and female fertility in mammals. As a first step in determining whether there are species-specific differences in the BMP-15 system that may play causal roles in the differences in ovulation quota observed in different mammalian species, we here compare the molecular characteristics of BMP-15 of polyovulatory mice with that of monoovulatory humans. We found that, although human BMP-15 mature protein is readily produced, there are defects in the production of mouse BMP-15 mature protein in an in vitro system of transfected cells. The generation of chimeric constructs consisting of different combinations of mouse and human BMP-15 proregions, cleavage sites, and mature regions indicates that the defects in the production of mouse BMP-15 mature protein depend on the presence of the mouse BMP-15 proregion. The mouse proregion also caused a significant reduction in the production of human BMP-15 mature protein. The coexpression with a convertase cleavage enzyme, furin, results in complete processing of all these chimeras; however, no mouse mature protein is detected in either secreted or cell-confined forms except when associated with the human proregion. Based on the biological role of BMP-15, defects in the production of mouse BMP-15 mature protein could correlate with the high ovulation quota and litter size observed in mice. |
