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. 2011 Jun 16;6(6):e21059. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021059

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.

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The interactions of gametes during in vitro fertilization were assessed by examining combinations of individual and pooled gametes. Specifically, a clutch of eggs was divided into four parts for 4 treatments containing: 1) an individual female's oocytes and an individual male's sperm (N = 36 trials); 2) an individual female's oocytes and pooled sperm from at least 5 males (N = 58 trials); 3) pooled oocytes from 3 females and an individual male's sperm (N = 62 trials); and 4) pooled oocytes from 3 females and pooled sperm from at least 5 males (N = 49). Fertilization success was assessed at 1, 4 and 24 h. There was no affect on fertilization success using pooled male sperm (P>0.05) with individual female eggs, suggesting that there was no male/male interactions or effect that inhibited fertilization, but a 50% reduction in fertilization success for pooled female eggs was observed (P<0.05). The means were significantly different (P<0.05; ANOVA) between the groups that have different letters.