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The Effects Of Hydrogen Peroxide On The Fertilization Of Sea Urchins Arbacia Punctulata

The Effects of Hydrogen Peroxide on the Fertilization of Sea Urchins Arbacia punctulata

Biology 188
Thursday 9:30 Lab
Brenda Seidel
13 April 2006

The Effects of Hydrogen Peroxide on Sea Urchins Arbacia punctulata

Biology 188
Thursday 9:30 Lab
Brenda Seidel
13 April 2006

Abstract

The objective of this experiment is to determine what concentration of hydrogen peroxide in a salt water environment would be best for sea urchin fertilization. Our hypothesis is that an environment with a concentration between 10-8 M and 10-10M of hydrogen peroxide will result in the highest successful fertilized sea urchin egg count. Sea urchin eggs and sperm were placed in separate test tubes with hydrogen peroxide concentrations of 10-1 to 10-12 M. Fifteen eggs were selected from each test tube and recorded to be fertilized, unfertilized, or abnormal. The results show that the highest count of successfully fertilized eggs was observed in the tube with a 10-12 M concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Additionally, it was observed that there was a low count of abnormal and unfertilized eggs in this tube. The data obtained in this experiment shows that an environment with a hydrogen peroxide concentration of 10-12 M is ideal for fertilization in sea urchins.
Introduction

In sea urchins, Arbacia punctulata, a high concentration of sperm and egg often result in polyspermy, the fertilization of an egg by more than one sperm. Polyspermy ultimately leads to uneven division and death (Coburn et al 1981). Offspring cannot result from eggs fertilized by more that one sperm (Aranows et al 1981). In sea urchin eggs, hydrogen peroxide is produced right after fertilization to combat this problem. A sea urchin dual oxidase, Udx1, in the egg generates the hydrogen peroxide to block polyspermy (Wong et al 2004, Wong et al 2005). In the absence of hydrogen peroxide, all eggs will undergo polyspermy and die. In Coburn et al's experiment, catalase was added to destroy...