Novel tool and approach to study signal transduction during human sperm dense-core granule exocytosis

TOMES CN

Herradura

Congreso; Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences Alumni Reunion; 2014

Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences

My lab is concerned with understanding the nature and regulation of signalling pathways  that drive the exocytosis of human sperm?s single dense-core secretory granule. In vivo, this exocytosis happens in the vecinity of the oocyte and is essential for fertilization.  At the core of the membrane fusion machinery we have found calcium, Rabs and their effectors, SNAREs and SNARE-interacting proteins, cAMP, its target Epac and Epac?s substrate Rap. We are now interested in developing tools and strategies that allow us to assess spatio-temporal regulatory changes in components of the fusion machinery in response to signals. To this end, we have recently developed an assay that determines simultaneously localization and changes in the activation status of small GTPases (Rab3, Rab27 and Rap) and tyrosine phosphorylation on NSF in response to perturbations. We are excited at the potential applications of this approach in many different systems to detect virtually any protein-protein interaction using the endogenous machinery in a small number of cells