Good morning everyone, today we are going to discuss the development of the

mouse.

The first events that take place in development are gametogenesis and fertilization.
Gametogenesis is the formation gametes, and fertilization is the fusion of gametes to
form a zygote. The mice have 20 chromosomes in the haploid and a total of 40 in its
diploid state.

This is a picture of a mouse sperm binding to the zona pellucida of an unfertilized

mouse egg.

This is a picture of a sperm cell. The sperm cell is a highly specialized cell. The nucleus
is haploid, with its DNA highly condensed and containing a protein called protamines
making up much of the protein content of chromatin. In front of the nucleus is the
acrosome which releases products needed for later events of fertilization. The
centriole is rich in mitochondria and the tail, which is a flagellum having the usual
9+2 arrangement of microtubule.

Fertilization is the union of sperm cell and egg cell together in a production of union
while avoiding hybridization which avoids cross-species fertilization and polyspermy,
the fertilization of egg by multiple sperm. The type of fertilization in mice is internal
fertilization and the viviparity of mouse is an example.

So what are the events needed to occur for a successful fertilization? In most
mammals, the sperm are not capable of fertilization immediately after release, they
need to spend a period in the female reproductive tract which they become
competent to fertilize, called capacitation. The oocyte of most mammals is
surrounded by a transparent layer of extracellular material called the zona pellucida.
Outside this lies some cumulus cells which is embedded in an extracellular matrix
rich in hyaluronic acid. And as soon as the capacitated sperm reaches the ovum, it is
able to penetrate this layer by release of hyaluronidase enzymes present on the
surface of sperm. Once this occurs, the sperm is capable of binding to the zona
pellucida. Shortly after binding to the unfertilized egg of the ZP, sperm undergo
acrosome reaction, a form of cellular exocytosis that enables sperm to penetrate the
zona pellucida. The recognition of protein ZP3 on the sperm is a cell surface beta-1,4-
galactosyl transferase and binding of the ZP3 to this protein starts the acrosome
reaction. The materials released by this acrosome reaction include hyrolytic enzymes
such as serine protease and acrosin that help digest a path through the zona and
enables sperm to reach the egg surface. The sperm and egg recognition is carried out
by ADAM proteins on the sperm which bind to the integrins on the egg surface. The
binding of sperm to egg is the first stage in fusion of the plasma membranes. Fusion
requires the four pass membrane protein on the egg called tetrasparin or CD9. From
there, the activation of the inositol triphosphate pathway following the fusion, will
cause the rise of the Ca2+ ions. The events dependent on the Ca2+ entry comprise
the exocytosis of cortical granules and their contents which include glycosidase and
proteases that modifies the zona pellucida so that they can no longer bind sperm.

The monitoring of the Ca2+ oscillations is a technique to demonstrate that

fertilization has occurred, to study egg activation events and to evaluate sperm
quality. Intracellular observed is a large increase in cytoplasmic free Ca2+ ions.

The zona is composed of three glycoproteins, the ZP1, ZP2 and ZP3. The sperm bind
to the ZP of unfertilized eggs, but not to the ZP of unfertilized eggs. Of these, the ZP3
is the specific sperm receptor, with its O-linked oligosaccharide. Low concentration of
ZP3, or the oligosaccharide, will prevnt sperm-zona binding. In normal eggs, the ZP3
gene is present and so the zona is ready to be binded by the sperm. In the other, the
eggs whose ZP3 has been knocked out, can still form normal oocytes but they do not
have zona and the mice are infertile.