Nicotine Induces Polyspermy in Sea Urchin Eggs through a Non-Cholinergic Pathway Modulating Actin Dynamics.

ABSTRACT: : While alkaloids often exert unique pharmacological effects on animal cells, exposure of sea urchin eggs to nicotine causes polyspermy at fertilization in a dose-dependent manner. Here, we studied molecular mechanisms underlying the phenomenon. Although nicotine is an agonist of ionotropic acetylcholine receptors, we found that nicotine-induced polyspermy was neither mimicked by acetylcholine and carbachol nor inhibited by specific antagonists of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Unlike acetylcholine and carbachol, nicotine uniquely induced drastic rearrangement of egg cortical microfilaments in a dose-dependent way. Such cytoskeletal changes appeared to render the eggs more receptive to sperm, as judged by the significant alleviation of polyspermy by latrunculin-A and mycalolide-

SUBMITTER: Limatola N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7016604 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature