Fertilization discovery reveals new role for the egg

An unexpected discovery about fertilization from the University of Virginia School of Medicine reveals new insights on how sperm and egg fuse and could have major implications for couples battling infertility—and may lead ...

Stunning zinc fireworks when egg meets sperm

Sparks literally fly when a sperm and an egg hit it off. The fertilized mammalian egg releases from its surface billions of zinc atoms in "zinc sparks," one wave after another, a Northwestern University-led interdisciplinary ...

The developmental on-switch

German researchers have demonstrated for the first time why the molecular cocktail responsible for generating stem cells works. Sox2 and Oct4 are proteins whose effect on cells resembles that of an eraser: They remove all ...

Zinc 'sparks' fly from egg within minutes of fertilization

(PhysOrg.com) -- At fertilization, a massive release of the metal zinc appears to set the fertilized egg cell on the path to dividing and growing into an embryo, according to the results of animal studies supported by the ...

Egg meets sperm: The female side of the story

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have been able to describe the 3D structure of a complete egg receptor that binds sperm at the beginning of fertilization. The results, published in the ...

Cell fusion 'eats up' the 'attractive cell' in flowering plants

Flowering plants naturally know when they need to spare or perish their cells. In a new study reported in Cell, an international group of plant biologists at ITbM, Nagoya University and other research institutes, have examined ...

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