Difference in Ca2+ oscillation-inducing activity and nuclear translocation ability of PLCZ1, an egg-activating sperm factor candidate, between mouse, rat, human, and medaka fish

Mouse phospholipase C, zeta 1 (PLCZ1), a strong candidate of egg-activating sperm factor, induces Ca2+ oscillations and accumulates into formed pronucleus (PN) when expressed by cRNA injection. These activities were compared among mouse and human PLCZ1, newly cloned rat Plcz1, and medaka fish plcz1. The PLCZ1 proteins of the four species have an approximately homologous sequence of nuclear localization signal. However, the nuclear translocation ability was defective in rat, human, and medaka PLCZ1 expressed in mouse eggs. Rat PLCZ1 could not enter rat PN, whereas mouse PLCZ1 could. Mouse and human PLCZ1 translocated into the nucleus of COS-7 cells transfected with cDNA. There was little medaka PLCZ1 accumulated in the nucleus, and rat PLCZ1 was never located in the nucleus. All PLCZ1 proteins including fish could induce Ca2+ oscillations in mouse eggs, but the activity was variable in the order of human >> mouse > medaka >> rat, estimated from minimal RNA concentration to induce Ca2+ spikes. Ca2+ oscillations by human PLCZ1 continued far beyond the time of PN formation (TIN), whereas those by mouse PLCZ1 ceased slightly before TIN. High-frequency Ca2+ spikes by overexpressed rat PLCZ1 stopped far before TIN, possibly by feedback inhibition. Ca2+ oscillations by fertilization of rat eggs stopped at TIN, despite defective nuclear translocation of rat PLCZ1. Thus, PLCZ1 sequestration into PN participates in termination of Ca 21 oscillations at the interphase of mouse embryos but does not always operate in other mammals, notably in rat embryos.