Science Ticker Life

Source of sperm and egg’s zinc sparks identified

zinc sparks

As a sperm invades a mouse egg, zinc sparks (yellow) fly from pouches beneath the egg's surface (green), kicking off the switch from egg to embryo.

Northwestern University

By Ashley Yeager

When egg meets sperm in mammals, zinc sparks fly. These sparks are created when thousands of zinc atoms shoot from thousands of small pouches nestled just beneath the surface of the egg cell, researchers report December 15 in Nature Chemistry. The team used detailed imaging and mapping techniques to capture the outburst and origin of the sparks. The discovery could help scientists figure out how changes in zinc levels control what’s happening in cells and may have implications for identifying the best eggs for in vitro fertilization.

ZINC SHOOTERS  As egg meet sperm, zinc sparks fly. This movie
shows the moment of fertilization, revealing hot spots of fluorescence
at the cell surface. These spots are pouches filled with zinc atoms that
erupt to create zinc sparks dancing about the newly minted embryo.
Credit: Northwestern University

About Ashley Yeager

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.

More Stories from Science News on Life

  1. Animals

    Chimp chatter is a lot more like human language than previously thought

    By Jake Buehler
  2. Plants

    Putrid plants can reek of hot rotting flesh with one evolutionary trick

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  3. Oceans

    Before altering the air, microbes oxygenated large swaths of the sea

    By Nikk Ogasa
  4. Health & Medicine

    Lining medical stents with hairlike fuzz could fend off infections

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  5. Animals

    Ancient poems document the decline of the Yangtze finless porpoise

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  6. Animals

    Frog ribbits erupt via an extravagant variety of vocal sacs

    By Susan Milius
  7. Health & Medicine

    A man let snakes bite him 202 times. His blood helped create a new antivenom

    By Meghan Rosen
  8. Animals

    Cool water could protect sea stars from a mysterious disease

    By Siddhant Pusdekar
Use up and down arrow keys to explore.Use right arrow key to move into the list.Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.Use tab key to enter the current list item.Use escape to exit the menu.Use the Shift key with the Tab key to tab back to the search input.
Logo

Looks like your ad blocker is on.

×

We rely on ads to keep creating quality content for you to enjoy for free.

Please support our site by disabling your ad blocker.

Continue without supporting us

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS
  3. Disable any privacy or tracking protection extensions such as Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection or DuckDuckGo Privacy.

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers, tracking protection or privacy extensions).