Abstract
Sea urchins are an excellent model system for investigating fertilization mechanisms and fundamental cell biological phenomenon such as release from quiescence, cell division, secretion, and basic signal transduction. The ease of gamete collection, fertilization, and culture is complemented by exquisite developmental synchronicity and the ability to carry out both large-scale biochemical studies and single-cell experiments. In particular, fertilization in echinoderms serves as a paradigm for a digital signaling event—a one-time only switch that launches the egg into the developmental pathway. Sperm-induced egg activation is dependent on the release of calcium from internal stores and subsequent effects on a myriad of cellular events such as exocytosis, cytoskeletal remodeling, and cell cycle reentry. Here we describe methods to investigate individual signaling proteins as well as global proteomic and phosphoproteomic changes involved in the initial steps of egg activation through the egg-to-embryo transition.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NSF grant IBN-0415581 to KRF and an NSF Pre doctoral Fellowship to MMR. We thank Kelli Swenson and the editors for helpful comments.
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Roux-Osovitz, M.M., Foltz, K.R. (2014). Isolation and Assessment of Signaling Proteins from Synchronized Cultures During Egg Activation and Through the Egg-to-Embryo Transition in Sea Urchins. In: Carroll, D., Stricker, S. (eds) Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin and Other Marine Invertebrates. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1128. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-974-1_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-974-1_19
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Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
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