Bioscientifica Proceedings

Much effort is being made to establish relationships between the molecular events that take place in spermatozoa under fertilizing conditions and actual sperm function during fertilization. During capacitation, the process that 'primes' spermatozoa for interaction with the egg, components of the sperm's environment, notably bicarbonate, provoke various specific changes in the architecture and functioning of the sperm plasma membrane in a large number of cells. The individ...