The soluble sperm oscillogen hypothesis

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Abstract
It is now accepted that sperm trigger deuterostome egg activation by causing an increase in egg cytoplasmic Ca2+levels (Jaffe, 1983; Whitaker & Swann, 1993). This increase generally takes the form of a single wave of Ca2+release that crosses the egg from the point of sperm-egg interaction (Jaffe, 1983)eggs Ca2+waves occur repetitively and soon turn into synchronous pulses, or homogeneous oscillations, that last for hours after sperm-egg fusion (Miyazakiet al., 1993b; Homaet al., 1993). Despite their extensive characterisation it is still not established how sperm trigger these Ca2+changes in eggs. The signal transduction mechanism is missing. There is a proliferation of overlapping and complex schemes for how the sperm may initiate Ca2+release (Miyazakiet al., 1993b;Whitaker & Swann, 1993). Here, my aim is to present one simple scheme in its generic form. The brevity of this essay restricts citations and necessitates using reviews to reference original work.