Part 1 Sperm Attraction, Activation and Acrosome Reaction -- 1 Sperm Chemotaxis: The First Authentication Events Between Conspecific Gametes Prior to Fertilization (Manabu Yoshida) -- 2 Respiratory CO2 Mediates Sperm Chemotaxis in Squids (Noritaka Hirohashi) -- 3 Specific Mechanism of Sperm Storage in Avian Oviducts (Tomohiro Sasanami) -- 4 Allurin: Exploring the Activity of a Frog Sperm Chemoattractant in Mammals (Douglas E. Chandler) -- 5 Structure, Function and Phylogenetic Consideration of Calaxin (Kazuo Inaba) -- 6 Cl- Channels and Transporters in Sperm Physiology (Alberto Darszon) -- 7 Equatorin-related Subcellular and Molecular Events During Sperm Priming for Fertilization in Mice (Kiyotaka Toshimori) -- 8 Acrosome Reaction-mediated Motility Initiation that is Critical for the Internal Fertilization of Urodele Amphibians (Akihiko Watanabe) -- 9 Analysis of the Mechanism that Brings Protein Disulfide Isomerase-P5 to Inhibit Oxidative Refolding of Lysozyme (Miho Miyakawa) -- Part 2 Gametogenesis, Gamete Recognition, Activation, and Evolution -- 10 Effect of Relaxin-like Gonad-Stimulating Substance (GSS) on Gamete Shedding and 1-Methyladenine Production in Starfish Ovaries (Masatoshi Mita) -- 11 Incapacity of 1-Methyladenine Production to Relaxin-like Gonad-Stimulating Substance (GSS) in Ca2+-free Seawater-treated Starfish Ovarian Follicle Cells (Masatoshi Mita) -- 12 Novel Isoform of Vitellogenin Expressed in Eggs is a Binding Partner of the Sperm Proteases, HrProacrosin and HrSermosin, in the Ascidian Halocynthia roretzi (Hitoshi Sawada) -- 13 Actin Cytoskeleton and Fertilization in Starfish Eggs (Luigia Santella) -- 14 Focused Proteomics on Egg Membrane Microdomains to Elucidate the Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Fertilization in the African Clawed Frog Xenopus laevis (Ken-ichi Sato) -- 15 Egg Activation in Polyspermy: Its Molecular Mechanisms and Evolution in Vertebrates (Yasuhiro Iwao ) -- 16 ATP Imaging in Xenopus laevis Oocyte (Takashi Ijiri) -- 17 Mitochondrial Activation and Nitric Oxide (NO) Release at Fertilization in Echinoderm Eggs (Tatsuma Mohri) -- 18 Functional Roles of Spe Genes in the Male Germline During Reproduction of Caenorhabditis elegans (Hitoshi Nishimura) -- 19 Origin of Female/Male Gender as Deduced by the Mating Type Loci of the Colonial Volvocalean Greens (Hisayoshi Nozaki) -- Part 3 Allorecognition in Male–Female Interaction -- 20 Allorecognition and Lysin Systems During Ascidian Fertilization (Hitoshi Sawada) -- 21 Self-incompatibility in the Brassicaceae (Megumi Iwano) -- 22 Signalling Events in Pollen Acceptance or Rejection in the Arabidopsis Species (Daphne R. Goring) -- 23 Papaver rhoeas S-Determinants and the Signaling Networks they Trigger (Vernonica E. Franklin-Tong ) -- 24 S-RNase-based Self-incompatibility in Petunia: A Complex Non-self Recognition System Between Pollen and Pistil (Teh-hui Kao) -- 25 Self-incompatibility System of Ipomoea trifida, a Wild-type Sweet Potato (Tohru Tsuchiya) -- Part 4 Male–Female Interaction and Gamete Fusion -- 26 Profiling the GCS1-based Gamete Fusion Mechanism (Toshiyuki Mori) -- 27 Fertilization Mechanisms of the Rodent Malarial Parasite Plasmodium berghei (Makoto Hirai) -- 28 Sexual Reproduction of a Unicellular Charophycean Alga, Closterium peracerosum-strogosum-littorale Complex (Hiroyuki Sekimoto) -- 29 Fertilization of Brown Algae: Flagellar Function in Phototaxis and Chemotaxis (Taizo Motomura ) -- 30 Gene and Protein Expression Profiles in Rice Gametes and Zygotes: A Cue for Understanding the Mechanisms of Gametic and Early Zygotic Development in Angiosperms (Takashi Okamoto) -- 31 Role of CD9 in Sperm-Egg Fusion and Virus-induced Cell Fusion in Mammals (Kenji Miyado) -- 32 The Mechanism of Sperm-Egg Fusion in Mouse and the Involvement of IZUMO1 (Naokazu Inoue) -- 33 A ZP2 Cleavage Model of Gamete Recognition and the Post-fertilization Block to Polyspermy (Jurrien Dean) -- 34 Involvement of Carbohydrate Residues of the Zona Pellucida in In Vitro Sperm Recognition in Pigs and Cattle (Naoto Yonezawa) -- Part 5 Organella, Proteolysis, and New Techniques -- 35 The Role of Peroxisomes in Plant Reproductive Processes (Shoji Mano) -- 36 Regulation of Vacuole-mediated Programmed Cell Death During Innate Immunity and Reproductive Development in Plants (Tomoko Koyano) -- 37 Sperm Proteasomes as a Putative Egg Coat Lysin in Mammals (Peter Sutovsky) -- 38 Germline Transformation in the Ascidian Ciona intestinalis (Yasunori Sasakura) -- BM Index.  .

Open Access

This book contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on the Mechanisms of Sexual Reproduction in Animals and Plants, where many plant and animal reproductive biologists gathered to discuss their recent progress in investigating the shared mechanisms and factors involved in sexual reproduction. This now is the first book that reviews recent progress in almost all fields of plant and animal fertilization. It was recently reported that the self-sterile mechanism of a hermaphroditic marine invertebrate (ascidian) is very similar to the self-incompatibility system in flowering plants. It was also found that a male factor expressed in the sperm cells of flowering plants is involved in gamete fusion not only of plants but also of animals and parasites. These discoveries have led to the consideration that the core mechanisms or factors involved in sexual reproduction may be shared by animals, plants and unicellular organisms. This valuable book is highly useful for reproductive biologists as well as for biological scientists outside this field in understanding the current progress of reproductive biology.                                                        .