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The Roles of Intermembrane Calcium in Polarizing and Activating Eggs

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Mechanism of Fertilization: Plants to Humans

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIH,volume 45))

Abstract

This paper first reviews the role of calcium in initiating tip growth in plant cells; emphasizing symmetry breaking in fucoid eggs, visualization of intermembrane calcium with chlorotetracycline, and the suppression of calcium gradients by injected calcium buffers. It then presents a new model of the path of calcium in the fertilization of deuterostomes, particularly of marine invertebrates and mammals. In this model, calcium leaks steadily across the inner acrosomal membrane of the acrosome-reacted and then fused sperm, thence beneath the oolemma whence it is slowly pumped by a cisternum of the e.r. Finally, this cisternum overloads and rapidly releases calcium to detonate a calcium wave.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    Lionel F. Jaffe

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  1. Lionel F. Jaffe
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stazione Zoologica, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy

    Brian Dale

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Jaffe, L.F. (1990). The Roles of Intermembrane Calcium in Polarizing and Activating Eggs. In: Dale, B. (eds) Mechanism of Fertilization: Plants to Humans. NATO ASI Series, vol 45. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83965-8_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83965-8_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-83967-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-83965-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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