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Home Q & A Board Biology-Related Homework Help General Biology
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NotAlice NotAlice
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A month ago
What mechanisms prevent two sperm or two eggs from producing zygotes in all species? Are they the same mechanisms that prevent the sperm of one specie and the egg of another specie from producing a zygote? I read that "different chromosomes" and "different cell surface proteins" prevent interspecies breeding. Aren't "different cell surface proteins" the mechanisms that prevent two sperm or two eggs from producing zygotes? What proteins are they?
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#1
Educator
A month ago
Hi Gender Critical,

Excerpt
One major barrier that prevents the fusion of isolated gametes from different species is the zona pellucida — a glycoprotein-rich coat that surrounds the ovulated oocyte — which exhibits species-specific interactions with sperm. Interestingly, by removing the zona pellucida it was found that oocytes from the Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) had the unusual ability to fuse with acrosome-reacted sperm from several other mammalian species, including mouse, pig and human.

Source https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275915/
wrote...
#2
A month ago Edited: A month ago, NotAlice
Quote from: bio_man (A month ago)
Hi Gender Critical,
Excerpt
One major barrier that prevents the fusion of isolated gametes from different species is the zona pellucida — a glycoprotein-rich coat that surrounds the ovulated oocyte — which exhibits species-specific interactions with sperm. Interestingly, by removing the zona pellucida it was found that oocytes from the Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) had the unusual ability to fuse with acrosome-reacted sperm from several other mammalian species, including mouse, pig and human.

Thank you! What about sperm-sperm and egg-egg interactions? Is there a barrier that prevents two sperm or two eggs from forming a zygote?

@bio_man
wrote...
#3
Educator
A month ago
The proteins found on the cellular membrane of these gametes are very specific as to which other proteins they can interact with. That is, two sperm don't have the protein–ligand interactions that are needed for a reaction to occur.

Does that help?
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