Studies on c-AMP Contents in Sea Urchin Eggs Fertilized with Normal and X-irradiated Sperm

Abstract

Intracellular levels of cyclic 3', 5'-adenosine monophosphate (c-AMP) seemed to be constant through the first cleavage cycle of sea urchin eggs. X-irradiation to the sperm, which induced the first cleavage delay, did not change this level. Although it was shown in the previous paper that X-ray-induced cleavage delay was reduced by caffeine but not by aminophylline, both caffeine and aminophylline caused an increase in c-AMP levels. These results indicated a possibility that c-AMP does not mediate this caffeine effect on cleavage delay.