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The soluble sperm factor that causes Ca2+ release from sea-urchin (Lytechinus pictus) egg homogenates also triggers
J Parrington1, K T Jones, A Lai
1Department of Anatomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Abstract:
Cytosolic extracts of boar sperm contain a soluble phospholipase C (PLC) activity that induces Ca2+ release in sea-urchin (Lytechinus pictus) egg homogenates and an uncharacterized protein factor that causes Ca2+ oscillations when injected into mammalian eggs. In the present study we fractionated boar sperm extracts on three different FPLC chromatographic columns and found that the fractions that caused maximal Ca2+ release in sea-urchin egg homogenates were also the ones that triggered Ca2+ oscillations in mouse eggs. Our data suggests that the sperm factor which triggers Ca2+ oscillations in eggs contains a PLC and not the 33 kDa glucosamine deaminase previously suggested to be one its components.