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Fertilization ecology of egg coats: physical versus chemical contributions to fertilization success of free-spawned eggs

Robert D. Podolsky

University of North Carolina, Department of Biology, CB 3280, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

View larger version (28K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Proportion of eggs fertilized as a function of sperm concentration for intact (filled circles) and coat-free eggs (open circles) in 15 individual trials. Graphs 1-10 show results for the acidification method of jelly coat removal; graphs 11-15 are for the neutral pH/mechanical method.

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Average fertilization rate as a function of sperm concentration for intact eggs (filled symbols) and coat-free eggs (open symbols). Data are separated by the two methods, acidification (circles, N=10) and mechanical removal (triangles, N=5). Error bars show 95% confidence intervals around the means for each sperm concentration and method.

View larger version (8K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Sperm half-life as a function of sperm concentration. Each point is the mean ± S.E.M. for seven males of the regression estimate of half-life from a single dilution of sperm. Half-life was measured in egg-water and is therefore probably a conservative estimate.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Changes in model parameters as a function of jelly coat volume. (A) Effects on the collision coefficients ß0 (from the original model) and (from the model incorporating egg sinking, Equation 2). (B) Effects on the product , or the effective volume of water cleared of sperm while sinking, for different sperm cloud diameters dc.