Could animal sperm fertilize a human egg?

[NickB]

Could animal sperm fertilize a human egg?

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Post by NickB » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:50 pm

Hi,

What I want to know is if the sperm will breach the egg wall and then abort or if the sperm is rejected before breaching the egg wall?

Specifically I want to know how far it goes before it aborts.

Thanks

P.S. Sorry I posted this in the wrong section.

[snowcapk]

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Post by snowcapk » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:38 pm

Guessing it will not breach the egg wall. Chemoattractants and sperm surface proteins designed to bind receptors on the zona pellucida/initiate the acrosomal reaction are species-specific.

[LilKim]

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Post by LilKim » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:08 am

... and even if the sperm were able to break the egg wall (which it wouldn't be)... the different chromosome complement would be incompatible with life... and it would be very unlikely that a zygote would develop

[wing85]

Re: Could animal sperm fertilize a human egg?

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Post by wing85 » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:00 am

Hmm... I am guessing that even after fertilization, the zygote would instantaneously abort since human has 23 chromosome and I'm assuming that other species has different # of chromosome. The chromosome won't pair up correctly and create monosomies... am i right?

[MrMistery]

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Post by MrMistery » Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:09 pm

In humans yes. The only viable human monosomy is monosomy X, so an organism with a different chromosome set would cause an embryo that would not be viable. However, if you were somehow able to create a hybrid between a chimp(2n=48) and a human(2n=46) then things turn complicate. The human karyotipe arose from a fusion phenomenon, which resulted in chromosome 2. So even if the chromosome number would be off(obviously caused sterility) i think it would be possible that the embryo would be viable. I don't know what would actually happen - as i see it you would need a genomic analysis for that. But at first glance, the possibility is there.

[snowcapk]

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Post by snowcapk » Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:01 am

Well, the zygote would probably not instantaneously abort. In sea urchin, polyspermy does not result in "instantaneous abortion" and development can continue through gastrulation (cf. Boveri). This development occurs even though 2(+) asters are introduced into the egg, which royally f***s up the partitioning of chromosomes during the first cell division.

And no, the embryo would not abort because chromosomes would not "be unable to pair up correctly"...remember that this is mitosis. Maternal and paternal chromosomes only "line up" adjacent to one another during meiosis I.