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. 1999 Jul 1;341(Pt 1):1–4.

The soluble sperm factor that causes Ca2+ release from sea-urchin (Lytechinus pictus) egg homogenates also triggers Ca2+ oscillations after injection into mouse eggs.

J Parrington 1, K T Jones 1, A Lai 1, K Swann 1
PMCID: PMC1220322  PMID: 10377237

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.

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Selected References

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