Large fluxes in zinc occur during maturation of the murine oocyte and at the time of fertilization in the mature egg.  These fluxes in intracellular zinc are essential for the maturation of the oocyte and for the transition of a meiotic gamete to a mitotic embryo. By applying emerging physical approaches for quantitative zinc mapping including live cell fluorescence probes, STEM-EDS, X-ray fluorescence microscopy, and 3D elemental tomography, we define a new class of cortical zinc-rich secretory compartments as key sites that are regulated thereby controlling zinc movement in meiotic maturation and activation of the egg. These zinc compartments are similarly activated at the time of fertilization, resulting in an extracellular burst of the metal, which we term 'zinc sparks'. Our findings regarding the characterization of zinc stores will be presented as well as recent evidence of zinc fluxes in larger mammalian species.

Mapping zinc in the mammalian egg: Quantitative characterization of cortical compartments that mediate zinc flux

248th National Meeting (2014)

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