Background: The slow block to polyspermy involves a permanent modification of the egg surface, usually through exocytosis of the cortical granules. In the 1970s, Dave Epel carried out experiments that led to the conclusion that a Ca2+ rise in the egg is both necessary and sufficient to trigger cortical granule exoctyosis (CGE).
Experiment (c) – Dr. Epel injects a calcium chelator (called EGTA; chelators act as specific “sinks” or “magnets” for ions) into unfertilized eggs and then adds sperm. The sperm bind and fuse with the eggs, but no CGE occurs.
For the experiment above, describe it as correlation, loss-of-function or gain-of function. Then, indicate the predicted result.
In biology, polyspermy describes an egg that has been fertilized by more than one sperm. Diploid organisms normally contain two copies of each chromosome, one from each parent.
After the fusion of the male and female gametes, there is a change that occurs in the outermost layer of the egg cell (zona pellucida) due to which no other sperm can fuse with the egg cell anymore.
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