Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Fertilization

Calcium's double punch

Nature volume 449, pages 297–298 (2007)Cite this article

Fertilization promotes a calcium surge necessary to ensure the success of embryonic development. It seems that calcium activates apparently opposite molecular signalling pathways to achieve that end.

Sexual reproduction relies on two cellular processes: meiosis, through which two cellular divisions produce gametes (sperm and egg), and fertilization, whereby male and female gametes fuse to form a zygote. In most organisms, the egg must halt meiosis to prevent embryonic development in the absence of fertilization. So a vertebrate egg remains arrested at the metaphase stage of the second meiotic division for many hours, awaiting the sperm. If sperm arrives, this breaks the arrest by increasing the intracellular concentration of calcium ions (Ca2+), allowing cell divisions that ultimately produce a multicellular organism. Two reports1,2 published in this issue show that the enzyme calcineurin has a previously unidentified function that is triggered by the sperm-induced Ca2+ surge and is essential for overcoming the meiotic arrest.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Events leading to meiotic arrest.
Figure 2: Fertilization, calcium surge and calcineurin.

References

  1. Nishiyama, T., Yoshizaki, N., Kishimoto, T. & Ohsumi, K. Nature 449, 341–345 (2007).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mochida, S. & Hunt, T. Nature 449, 336–340 (2007).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Masui, Y. & Markert, C. L. J. Exp. Zool. 177, 129–145 (1971).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sagata, N., Watanabe, N., Vande Woude, G. F. & Ikawa, Y. Nature 342, 512–518 (1989).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Schmidt, A. et al. Genes Dev. 19, 502–513 (2005).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Inoue, D., Ohe, M., Kanemori, Y., Nobui, T. & Sagata, N. Nature 446, 1100–1104 (2007).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Nishiyama, T., Ohsumi, K. & Kishimoto, T. Nature 446, 1096–1099 (2007).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lorca, T. et al. Nature 366, 270–273 (1993).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Rauh, N. R., Schmidt, A., Bormann, J., Nigg, E. A. & Mayer, T. U. Nature 437, 1048–1052 (2005).

    CAS  Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Liu, J. & Maller, J. L. Curr. Biol. 15, 1458–1468 (2005).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catherine Jessus and Olivier Haccard are at CNRS, UMR7622 (Biologie du Développement), Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 9 quai Saint-Bernard, 75005 Paris, France. jessus@ccr.jussieu.fr,

    Catherine Jessus & Olivier Haccard

  2. olh@ccr.jussieu.fr,

    Catherine Jessus & Olivier Haccard

Authors
  1. Catherine Jessus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Olivier Haccard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jessus, C., Haccard, O. Calcium's double punch. Nature 449, 297–298 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/449297a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/449297a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing