Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Louise Hyslop, Dr Victoria Nixon, Professor Keith Jones
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
At fertilization in sea urchin, the free radical nitric oxide (NO) has recently been suggested to cause the intracellular Ca2+ rise responsible for egg activation. The authors suggested that NO could be a universal activator of eggs and the present study was set up to test this hypothesis. Intracellular NO and Ca2+ levels were monitored simultaneously in eggs of the mouse or the urochordate ascidian Ascidiella aspersa. Eggs were either fertilized or sperm extracts microinjected. Sperm-induced Ca2+ rises were not associated with any global, or local, change in intracellular NO, although we were able to detect NO produced by the addition of a NO donor. Furthermore, the NO synthase inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester had no effect on sperm-induced Ca2+ release but did block completely ionomycin-induced NO synthase activation. Therefore, we suggest that the current data provide evidence that NO has no role in the fertilization of these two chordate eggs. © 2001 Academic Press.
Author(s): Hyslop LA, Carroll M, Nixon VL, McDougall A, Jones KT
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Developmental Biology
Year: 2001
Volume: 234
Issue: 1
Pages: 216-230
ISSN (print): 0012-1606
ISSN (electronic):
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/dbio.2001.0252
DOI: 10.1006/dbio.2001.0252
PubMed id: 11356031
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
