Fertilization ecology of egg coats: Physical versus chemical contributions to fertilization success of free-spawned eggs
Journal of Experimental Biology, ISSN: 0022-0949, Vol: 205, Issue: 11, Page: 1657-1668
2002
- 50Citations
- 60Captures
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Example: if you select the 1-year option for an article published in 2019 and a metric category shows 90%, that means that the article or review is performing better than 90% of the other articles/reviews published in that journal in 2019. If you select the 3-year option for the same article published in 2019 and the metric category shows 90%, that means that the article or review is performing better than 90% of the other articles/reviews published in that journal in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
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Metrics Details
- Citations50
- Citation Indexes50
- 50
- CrossRef43
- Captures60
- Readers60
- 60
Article Description
Free-spawned eggs are typically enclosed within accessory structures that are shed early in development. Most research on the role of these structures in fertilization has focused on chemical constituents and their influence on sperm-egg interaction. Here I test an alternative hypothesis that accessory structures play an important physical role in fertilization by increasing the size and buoyancy of the egg, making it a better target for sperm. In the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus, the jelly coat increases egg target size sixfold. At nonsaturating sperm concentrations, fertilization declined consistently following jelly coat removal by two independent methods. Regression analysis using a standard fertilization kinetics model found that 54-73% of this decline on average was predicted by changes in the rate of sperm-egg collision, resulting from changes in egg target size and density. Sperm swimming speed, a key parameter in the model, did not vary as a function of sperm concentration or exposure to egg-water. The organic cost of jelly is a fraction of that of the ovum, providing an efficient means of extending target size beyond the ovum size that is optimal for larval or juvenile development. These results support the hypothesis that physical attributes of jelly coats can account for a significant portion of their contribution to fertilization, and may help to explain why coats and other accessory structures are often substantially larger than expected from the nature of chemical interactions between egg and sperm.
Bibliographic Details
The Company of Biologists
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