Abstract
SEA urchin eggs remain monospermic during fertilisation by excluding the entry of all but one sperm. Two mechanisms have been proposed to account for this exclusion. The first is a rapid alteration of the egg surface, lowering its receptivity to sperm, which occurs within a few seconds of successful contact of the fertilising sperm; this is the so-called fast block1. This block prevents or reduces further sperm entry for the next 30 s, until the time of the cortical reaction, which establishes the second and permanent block to polyspermy. This permanent or cortical block results from the release of cortical granule proteases, elevation of the fertilisation membrane, and subsequent detachment of sperm. The existence of a cortical block has been well established by a number of investigators2–4. Although the concept is intuitively compelling, the existence of a fast block has been questioned5,6, and it is supported by only one series of experiments1.
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BYRD, E., COLLINS, F. Absence of fast block to polyspermy in eggs of sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Nature 257, 675–677 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/257675a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/257675a0
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