Reproductive Structural Biology

molecular architecture of mammalian sperm

The scientific interest of the group is in the molecular basis of fertilization.

Fertilization is a complex multi-step process with a complicated spatiotemporal pattern; it includes sperm-oocyte recognition, interaction and fusion. The molecular basis of mammalian fertilization is still considered a molecular enigma. To address the open questions in the field the group is applying a cellular structural biology approach.

The group combines biochemistry, biophysics and advanced cryo-electron microscopy to unravel the molecular basis of fertilization

Interested in this subject ? look at our Research Projects     

Would like to join our team? contact us at z.zeev@uu.nl

Follow us @tzviyazbm.bsky.social

 

Further reading:

  1. Möcking J, Doroshev S, Leung MR, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T. SUN5 forms a regular protein lattice reinforcing the sperm head-tail junction. 2026 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123(12):e2520626123. 
  2. Judernatz JH, Pérez Pañeda L, Kadavá T, Heck AJ, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T. Characterisation of the manchette architecture and its role as transport scaffold using cryo-electron tomography. 2025 Life Sci. Alliance 8(10):e202503415.
  3. Leung, MR, Sun, C,Zeng, J,Anderson, JR,Niu, Q,Huang, W, Noteborn, WE, Brown, A, Zeev-Ben_Mordehai, T, Zhang, R. Structural diversity of axonemes across mammalian motile cilia. 2025. Nature 637(8048):1170-1177
  4. Leung MR, Zeng J, Wang X, Roelofs MC, Huang W, Zenezini Chiozzi R, Hevler JF, Heck AJR, Dutcher SK, Brown A, Zhang R, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T. Structural specializations of the sperm tail. 2023 Cell.186(13):2880-2896.e17
  5. Leung MR, Zenezini-Chiozzi R, Roelofs MC, Hevler JF, Ravi, RT, Maitan P, Zhang M, Henning H, Bromfield EG, Howes SC, Gadella BM,Heck AJR, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T.* In-cell structures of a conserved supramolecular array at the mitochondria-cytoskeleton interface in mammalian sperm. 2021. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 118(45):e2110996118
  6. Khanal S, Leung MR, Royfman A, Fishman EL, Saltzman B, Bloomfield-Gadêlha H, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T, and Avidor-Reiss T. A dynamic basal complex modulates mammalian sperm movement. 2021. Nature Communications. 12:3808.
  7. Leung MR, Roelofs MC, Ravi RT, Maitan P, Zhang M, Henning H, Bromfield EG, Howes SC, Gadella BM, Bloomfield-Gadêlha H, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T. The multi-scale architecture of mammalian sperm flagella and implications for ciliary motility. 2021. EMBO J. 40:e107410.
  8. Ravi RT, Leung MR, Zeev-Ben-Mordehai T. Looking back and looking forward: contributions of electron microscopy to the structural cell biology of gametes and fertilisation. 2020. Open Biol. 10:200186.