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Journal of Experimental Biology 9,253-263 (1932)
Published by Company of Biologists 1932

Iodine Compounds and Fertilisation : VI. Physiological Properties of Extracts of the Ovaries and Testes of Echinus Esculentus. Part I

G. S. CARTER ¹

¹ Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.; Laboratory of Experimental Zoology, Cambridge, and the Marine Laboratory, Millport

1. Extracts from ripe testes and ovaries of E. esculentus were prepared by Harington's method for the extraction of thyroxine. The amount of crude extract obtained was, on the average, one-eighth of that obtained by Harington from the thyroid.

2. Attempts to purify these extracts showed that they did not contain a considerable proportion of thyroxine.

3. The extracts had a small but definite metamorphic effect on the tadpoles of Rana temporaria and Bufo vulgaris.

4. Comparison between the action of these extracts and that of thyroxine on the eggs and sperm of Echinus showed that the active element in the extracts did not consist of a very small proportion of thyroxine but of a much larger proportion of a substance less efficient than thyroxine in hastening the metamorphosis of tadpoles but at least as efficient as thyroxine in its effects upon the eggs and sperm.

5. The method of extraction and the similarity in physiological action between the extracts and thyroxine show that the active substance in the extracts is chemically related to thyroxine.

6. It is concluded that:

(a) This substance or a closely related substance is one of the components of the egg secretions.

(b) It is this component of the secretions which is essential to the activation of the egg, and therefore the fertilizin of Lillie.

(c) This substance is also present in the ripe sperm.