Identification of two distinctly localized mitochondrial creatine kinase isoenzymes in spermatozoa

Abstract

The creatine kinase (CK) isoenzyme system is essential for motility in rooster and sea urchin sperm. In the present study, biochemical characterization as well as immunofluorescence and confocal laser microscopy with highly specific antibodies against various chicken CK isoenzymes revealed that cytosolic brain-type CK isoenzyme (B-CK) is the only CK isoenzyme in rooster seminal plasma, while three isoenzymes, cytosolic B-CK, sarcomeric mitochondrial CK (Mib-CK), and a variant of ubiquitous Mi-CK (‘Mia-CK variant’), are found in rooster spermatozoa. These three isoenzymes are localized in different regions of the sperm cell. B-CK and Mib-CK were localized along the entire sperm tail and in the mitochondria-rich midpiece, respectively. The ‘Mia-CK variant’, on the other hand, was found predominantly at the head-midpiece boundary, in a non-uniform manner in the midpiece itself and, surprisingly, at the distal end of the sperm tail as well as at the acrosome. Several lines of evidence show that the ‘Mia-CK variant’ shares some characteristics with purified Mia-CK from chicken brain, but also displays distinctive features. This is the first evidence for two different Mi-CK isoenzymes occurring in one cell and, additionally, for the co-expression of Mib-CK and cytosolic brain-type B-CK in the same cell. The relevance of these findings for sperm physiology and energetics is discussed.