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[Ca2+]i signalling in sperm — making the most of what you've got

Nature Cell Biology volume 9, pages 235–242 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Thanks to a worrying decrease in male fertility, understanding how sperm 'work' is a matter both of interest and great importance. Sperm of all animals detect various environmental cues. The 'behavioural' and physiological responses of sperm must be specific, appropriate and correctly timed. Strangely, in a cell with few organelles and minimal cytoplasmic volume, internal Ca2+ concentration, [Ca2+]i, regulates almost all these activities. How does such a simple cell achieve this — and is it as simple as it seems?

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Figure 1: The journey of a human sperm.
Figure 2: Structural simplicity and complex [Ca2+]i signalling in sperm.
Figure 3: Chemotaxis in sea urchin sperm (based on refs. 51–53).
Figure 4: Chemotaxis and regulation of flagellar beat mode by [Ca2+]i in human sperm.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to B. Michell, S. Clarke and M. Publicover for their comments and suggestions on preliminary versions of this paper. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stephen Publicover is in the School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK and the Centre for Human Reproductive Science, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Birmingham, B15 2TG, UK.,

    Stephen Publicover

  2. Claire Harper is in the School of Biological Sciences, Biosciences Building, Crown Street, University of Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK.,

    Claire V. Harper

  3. Christopher Barratt is in the Reproductive Biology and Genetics Research Group, The Medical School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK and the Centre for Human Reproductive Science, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Birmingham, B15 2TG, UK. s.j.publicover@bham.ac.uk,

    Christopher Barratt

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Publicover, S., Harper, C. & Barratt, C. [Ca2+]i signalling in sperm — making the most of what you've got. Nat Cell Biol 9, 235–242 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb0307-235

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