SPERM-EGG INTERACTING SUBSTANCES, I 33 



of the morphology of the movement, it is not so obvious that an 

 increase in speed is beneficial in increasing the chance of an en- 

 counter between a spermatozoon and an egg. This question, 

 which involves consideration of the statistical mechanics of sperm 

 movement, is gone into in greater detail in chapters 4 and 9. An 

 increase in sperm respiration in the presence of egg water does not 

 always occur. Hayashi (1946), Spikes (19496) and Rothschild 

 (1952) observed a decrease in Og uptake on addition of egg water, 

 which was not due to agglutination, while Carter (1931) found 

 that fully ripe spermatozoa of Echinus esculentus and Psammechinus 

 miliaris appeared to be unaffected by egg secretions. On the other 

 hand, Vasseur (1952) has shown that egg water undoubtedly in- 

 creases the Oo uptake of ageing sperm suspensions of a number of 

 different genera and species of sea-urchins. In the Mediterranean 

 sea-urchin, Arhacia lixiila, the substance, sometimes called Gyno- 

 gamone I (G.I), responsible for sperm activation, was said by 

 Hartmann et al. (1940) to be the substituted naphthoquinone, 

 echinochrome (2-ethyl-3, 5, 6, 7, 8-pentoxinaphthoquinone-i, 4), 

 probably in equilibrium with isomeric quinones. According to 

 Hartmann and his co-workers, echinochrome, which is responsible 

 for the pink colour of these sea-urchin eggs, is bound to a protein 

 carrier within the eggs. In this form echinochrome is biologically 

 inactive and before being able to activate spermatozoa, it must 

 become attached to a second carrier derived from the egg jelly, or 

 be separated from its original protein carrier. The ternary com- 

 plex is said to 'activate' spermatozoa at a dilution of 1/3.10^^. The 

 significance of the word 'activate' is not clear in this context and 

 if it merely means that the spermatozoa seemed to move more 

 quickly in the presence of the ternary complex, the observation 

 should be taken with a grain of salt. No quantitative information, 

 based on O2 uptake, is available. A similar claim, that astaxanthine, 

 which is normally present in trout eggs, increases the activity of 

 trout spermatozoa, was made by Hartmann et al. (1947). As this 

 is not a book about spermatozoa per se, the differences of opinion 

 which exist about the effects of echinochrome and many other 

 substances on the activity and metabolism of spermatozoa will not 

 be further discusssed. Further information will be found in Mann's 

 recent book, The Biochemistry of Semen (1954), an important 

 paper by Bielig & Dohrn (1950) which casts a good deal of doubt 

 on the echinochrome story, and reviews by Tyler (1948) and 



