Abstract
It is as important for an egg to be fertilized by only one sperm as to be fertilized at all. “Polyspermy” is the condition of an egg fertilized by more than one sperm, and it is lethal in many species including fucoid algae, sea urchins, frogs, and man (Jaffe & Gould, 1985; Brawley, 1987; Kola & Trounson, 1989). Polyspermic zygotes die, not because of extra genetic material per se, but due to the maldistribution of chromosomes caused by extra centrioles, paternally-inherited, which create a multi-polar spindle. Some organisms (e.g., birds, reptiles and many urodeles) are “physiologically polyspermic” (Wilson, 1925; Iwao, 1989). Eggs of these species sustain multiple fertilizations, but only one set of sperm organelles becomes functional; the others are destroyed within the egg cytoplasm by as yet unknown means.
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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Brawley, S.H. (1990). The polyspermy block in fucoid algae. In: Wiessner, W., Robinson, D.G., Starr, R.C. (eds) Cell Walls and Surfaces, Reproduction, Photosynthesis. Experimental Phycology, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-48652-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-48652-4_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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