Figure 4. GIV’s guanine nucleotide-exchange modulator (GEM) function is dynamically phosphoregulated during capacitation and acrosomal reaction (AR) in a spatiotemporally segregated manner.

(A) Schematic shows the domain map of GIV (top) and the evolutionarily conserved GEM motif within its C terminus. A functional GEM motif is required for GIV to bind and activate Gαi as well as bind and inhibit Gαs (Gupta et al., 2016). Important phosphoserine modifications that regulate GIV’s GEM motif and the corresponding target kinases are highlighted. (B, C) Non-capacitated and capacitated mouse (B) and human (C) sperm were fixed and analyzed for the phosphoserine modifications highlighted in (A). (D, E) Mouse sperm with/without capacitation followed by treatment with either Ca²⁺ ionophore or progesterone to trigger AR were fixed and co-stained for peanut agglutinin (PNA-488; green, an acrosomal marker) and either pYGIV (D) or pSerGIV (E) and DAPI. Representative images are shown. Scale bar = 10 µm. (F) Schematic summarizes the spatially segregated phosphomodifications on GIV before and after capacitation and AR in various parts of the sperm. (i) Inhibitory phosphorylation at pS1689 on GIV is seen in both head and tail prior to capacitation (F, top); (ii) activating phosphorylation at S1674 on GIV is seen in the sperm head and tail, whereas pYGIV is predominantly seen in the mid-piece and the tail regions upon capacitation (post-cap; F) as well as during AR before the acrosome is shed (pre-AR; F); and (iii) after the acrosome is shed, pYGIV is the only phospho-GIV that is detected, and predominantly in the mid-piece (post-AR; F). Representative images that capture the most frequently observed staining pattern(s) (at >80% frequency), among ~50–150 sperms/sample, three independent samples, derived either from human subjects (n = 3) or mice (n = 3) are shown.