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a Division of Reproductive Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
b Department of Biology, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia 23005
c Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health and
d Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
The mouse germinal vesicle (GV)-intact oocyte is a symmetric cell, with the GV centrally localized and with components of the plasma membrane and cortex symmetrically distributed around the periphery of the oocyte. During oocyte maturation, two distinct regions of the egg plasma membrane and cortex develop: the amicrovillar region overlying the meiotic spindle and the microvillar region. The development of this polarity is significant, since sperm bind to and fuse with the microvillar region. We are interested in the development of egg polarity and have characterized the localizations of several markers for egg polarity in normal metaphase II eggs and GV-intact oocytes. The asymmetric distributions of these markers (including actin, cortical granules, binding sites for the sperm proteins fertilin 
and fertilin ß, and two different ß1 integrin epitopes) develop during oocyte maturation in vitro, and this polarity can be perturbed by treatments that disrupt the actin microfilaments or microtubules. In addition, immunoelectron microscopy reveals that binding sites for recombinant fertilin ß are specifically localized to the microvillar region, suggesting that the binding sites for this sperm ligand are either specifically localized or activated in this region. These results indicate that structural remodeling of the mouse egg plasma membrane is accompanied by molecular remodeling, resulting in the localization or activation of specific molecules in subdomains of the plasma membrane.
1 This research was supported by the NIH (HD 37696 to J.P.E., HD 22732 to G.S.K. and R.M.S., HD 06274 to G.S.K., HD 22681 to R.M.S., HD 22899 to G.L.G.) and by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine/Organon, Inc. Research Grant in Reproductive Medicine (to J.P.E.).
2 Correspondence: Janice P. Evans, Division of Reproductive Biology, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Room 3606A, Baltimore, MD 21205. FAX: 410 614 2356; jpevans{at}jhsph.edu
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