Identification of Membrane Antigens of Goat Epididymal Spermatozoa

Purified goat sperm plasma membrane was used as antigen to raise the antibody in rabbit. ?Lsing this antisera four groups of antigenic membrane polypeptides are determined in caput and cauda epididymal sperm. The immuno-responsiveness of the polypeptides in caput and cauda sperm differs signifi- cantly. In case of cauda epididymal sperm, the polypeptides of region A (96ma, 82KDa, 78KDa, 6SKDa) and region D (24KDa, 2OKDa, 1SRDa) are highly immunores- ponsive whereas in case of caput epididymal sperm the same antisera recognized the polypeptides of region R, C and D. By surface labelling with lactoperoxi- dase iodination and subsequent immunoprecipitation in the iodinated cell extract we demonstrate eight of these above polypeptides (96KDa, 82KDa, 6SJCDa, SOKDa, 29KDa, 24KDa, 2OKDa and 1SKDa) as surface antigen. The 96KDa, R2RDa and 6WDa surface polypeptides are highly immunoresponsive than the other lower molecular weight surface antigens in cauda epididymal goat spermatozoa