Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/804293

OpenURL Link
Title
Injections of porcine sperm extracts trigger fertilization-like calcium oscillations in oocytes of a marine worm
Author/Creator
Stricker, Stephen A.;  Swann, Karl;  Jones, Keith T.;  Fissore, Rafael A.
Description
The precise mechanisms by which sperm trigger calcium transients in eggs or oocytes during fertilization remain unknown. Based on time-lapse confocal microscopy, we show that intracellular injections of porcine sperm extracts cause the oocytes of a marine nemertean worm to undergo repetitive calcium oscillations resembling those obtained during normal fertilizations. Such findings are consistent with the view that fertilization involves a soluble sperm factor (SF) which is capable of eliciting calcium transients without binding to externally situated receptors on the oocyte plasmalemma. This study also describes for the first time the wave-like propagation patterns of SF-induced calcium transients that are generated in a heterologous combination of gametes obtained from different phyla of animals. Such cross-reactivity between distantly related taxa suggests that the intracellular signaling pathways triggered by sperm factors can be well conserved.
Relation
Experimental Cell Research Vol. 257, Issue 2, p. 341-347
Publisher Link
http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/excr.2000.4897
Date
2000
Publisher
Academic Press
Keyword(s)
calcium;  sperm;  transients;  heterologous;  eggs;  worm;  fertilization;  oocytes
Resource Type
journal article
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/804293
Identifier
ISSN:0014-4827
Language
eng
Reviewed
Reviewed
8 Visitors 9 Hits 0 Downloads
Save/E-mail Citation
Citation Format
E-mail Address
Subject
"Experimental Cell Research"
 
OR