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Characterization of the Japanese Quail Oocyte Receptor for Very Low Density Lipoprotein and Vitellogenin^1,2,

Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1151 ^* Department of Molecular Genetics, University and Biocenter Vienna, A-1030 Vienna, Austria

The plasma membrane receptor for VLDL and vitellogenin from oocytes of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) was characterized and compared with that of another domestic fowl, the chicken (Gallus domesticus). When visualized by ligand blotting with biotinylated or ¹²⁵I-labeled lipoproteins, the quail VLDL/vitellogenin receptor had an apparent M_r of 95 kDa under nonreducing conditions, identical to that of the chicken receptor. Upon analysis by ligand blotting, binding of radiolabeled quail plasma VLDL to the quail oocyte receptor seemed to be saturable and exhibited high affinity (apparent K_d of 13.9 mg/L). Cross-reactivity, at the level of ligand recognition, was observed between quail and chicken VLDL/vitellogenin receptors, and immunological relatedness was demonstrated by Western blotting with a rabbit anti-chicken oocyte VLDL receptor antibody. In contrast, a species difference was observed in the apolipoprotein VLDL-II moiety of plasma VLDL. Chicken apolipoprotein VLDL-II, an 82-amino acid protein with a disulfide crosslink at residue 75 (the sole cysteine residue), existed as a homodimer of 9.5 kDa subunits and, to a lesser extent, as a monomer. Quail apolipoprotein VLDL-II existed only in monomeric form without reduction and lacked cysteine. The present results demonstrate that, despite a difference in an apolipoprotein moiety of VLDL, quail and chicken oocyte lipoprotein receptors share key structural and functional elements. This lends further support to the notion that receptor recognition is mediated by the common VLDL component, apolipoprotein B.

KEY WORDS: • quail • vitellogenin • VLDL • oocyte receptor • apolipoprotein VLDL-II

¹ Journal paper no. 14027 of the Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station. Supported in part by grants from the Indiana State Poultry Association, Inc., the Indiana State Egg Board and the Austrian Science Foundation (P-9040).

² The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed. RGE also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Austrian-American Educational Commission and the U.S. Information Agency during his tenure at the University of Vienna as a Fulbright Research Scholar.

Manuscript received 25 April 1994. Revision accepted 17 October 1994.