[ti:Study Finds How Egg and Sperm Connect]
[al:Science & Technology]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-10-28]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]How a sperm and an egg come together has long been a mystery.
[00:05.85]Now, new research by scientists in Austria provides interesting insight. 
[00:13.68]It shows that fertilization works like a lock and key in animals that have a backbone -- from fish to people. Such animals are called vertebrates.
[00:29.57]"We discovered this mechanism that's really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell," said co-author Andrea Pauli.
[00:42.63]He spoke to the Associated Press from the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria.
[00:52.79]The team found that three proteins in sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg. 
[01:01.83]The process permits the sperm to attach to the egg.
[01:07.85]The research findings come from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells. 
[01:15.25]They show how this process has continued over millions of years of evolution.
[01:25.02]The findings appear in the science magazine, Cell.
[01:30.18]Scientists already knew about two proteins -- one on the surface of the sperm and another in the tissue of the egg.
[01:42.34]Working with an international team, Pauli's lab used Google DeepMind's artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold to help them find and identify a new protein. 
[01:59.16]The protein permits the first molecular connection between sperm and egg.
[02:07.09]The developers of AlphaFold won a Nobel Prize earlier this month.
[02:14.91]However, what the researchers did not know until now was how the proteins worked together as a team to get the sperm and egg to recognize each other, Pauli said.
[02:30.54]Scientists still do not know how the sperm gets inside the egg after it attaches. 
[02:38.60]They say they hope to explore that next.
[02:43.29]Pauli said such research could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods, also called contraceptives.
[02:59.17]The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives said David Greenstein in an email to AP. 
[03:11.49]Greenstein is a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota and was not involved in the study. 
[03:22.83]The latest study also highlights the importance of this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry, he said in the email.
[03:33.27]I'm Anna Matteo.