Carbohydrate composition of specific rat epididymal protein

Abstract

Previous results demonstrated that androgen‐dependent rat specific epididymal proteins (SEP) were bound to spermatozoa during their maturation in the epididymis. This paper describes the purification of glycoprotein DE, which constitutes 40% of SEP, and the identification and semiquantitative determination of the sugars forming its oligosaccharide chain. Affinity chromatography on Sepharose‐Concanavalin A produced a sample of D‐E 95% pure in which 10.5 g of sugar were present per 100 g protein. The percentual composition of the oligosaccharide was D‐mannose 19%; D‐galactose 3%; N‐acetyl‐D‐glucosamine 33%; N‐acetyl‐neuraminic acid 31% and D‐glucose 13%. Copyright © 1982, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved