The Fertilization Dance: A Mechanical View of the Egg Rotation During the Initial Spermatozoa–Ovum Interaction
✍ Scribed by AVINOAM NIR
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2002
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 342 KB
- Volume
- 214
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-5193
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✦ Synopsis
The motion of the ovum and the spermatozoa toward each other in the oviduct culminates in a meeting that ultimately results in fertilization. This encounter is characterized by a slow rotation of the sperms}egg cluster while the sperms attempt a penetration. The mysterious rotation was observed in vivo and in vitro for homologous and heterologous systems. It lacks a satisfactory biological explanation while it seems to be correlated with the e$ciency of fertilization. A simple bio-mechanical model presented here predicts that the slow rotation of the sperms}egg cluster is a natural consequence of the encounter in most cases. A linear stability analysis of the system suggests a quantitative explanation of the rotation causes, its intensity and its direction. The entire encounter seems as a micro-scale process of courting of the ovum by the spermatozoa, which is expressed as circular dance.