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UCLA Life Scientists’ Study of Abalone Yields New Insights into Sexual Reproduction

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2011Sciencechemistry and biology of reproduction, contact between sperm and egg, effective communication system, environmental conditions, female abalone eggs, fluid dynamics, jeffrey riffell, mammalian reproductive tract, massachusetts institute of technology, molecule, natural habitat of the abalone, ocean crevices, ocean dwelling snail, point loma, red abalone, richard zimmer, roman stocker, san diego, sexual reproduction, sperm and eggs, target area, techniques to improve fertilization in humans, tryptophan, ucla, university of washington

*Research could lead to techniques to improve fertilization in humans*

In new research that could have implications for improving fertilization in humans and other mammals, life scientists studied interactions between individual sperm and eggs in red abalone, an ocean-dwelling snail, and made precise chemical measurements and physical models of these interactions. They are the first scientists to do so.

By simulating the natural habitat of the abalone in the laboratory, the scientists were able to determine the conditions under which sperm–egg encounters and fertilization were most likely to occur. (more…)

Whales Help Researchers Take Winter Temperature of Greenland’s Coastal Waters

WASHINGTON — Scientists using sensors attached to a type of Arctic whale known for its unicorn-horn-like tooth have detected continued warming of the southern Baffin Bay off West Greenland. The temperatures of the waters have continued to rise since wintertime ocean temperatures were last effectively measured there in the early 2000s, the researchers reported October 23 in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, a publication of the American Geological Union (AGU).

Temperatures in the study were collected by narwhals, a medium-sized whale species, during missions in 2006 and 2007. The animals were tagged with sensors that recorded ocean depths and temperatures during feeding dives from the surface pack ice to the seafloor, as deep as 1,773 meters, or more than a mile. (more…)

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UCLA Life Scientists’ Study of Abalone Yields New Insights into Sexual Reproduction

Whales Help Researchers Take Winter Temperature of Greenland’s Coastal Waters