Monitoring Calcium Oscillations in Fertilized Mouse Eggs

Guillaume Halet (1)

1 IGDR - Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes

In mammalian species, including human, fertilization is characterized by the triggering of long-lasting calcium (Ca(2+)) oscillations in the egg cytoplasm. The monitoring of these Ca(2+) oscillations is a valuable technique to demonstrate that fertilization has occurred, to study egg activation events elicited downstream of the Ca(2+) signal, as well as to evaluate sperm quality. This chapter describes our protocol to monitor sperm-induced Ca(2+) oscillations in mouse eggs, using fluorescence microscopy techniques and the Fura-2-AM ratiometric Ca(2+) indicator.

Keywords: Oocyte; Egg; Sperm; Fertilization; Calcium; Ca2+; Fluorescence; Imaging

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Genetics

Guillaume Halet. Monitoring Calcium Oscillations in Fertilized Mouse Eggs. Methods in Molecular Biology, 2016, 1457, pp.231-240. ⟨10.1007/978-1-4939-3795-0_17⟩. ⟨hal-01439381⟩