Common Problems of the Discussion

1. The answer/interpretation of your key findings is not provided in the first paragraph.
2. No concluding paragraph is provided. The importance/significance of the study is not
clear.
3. Irrelevant or peripheral information is included.
4. Results are repeated or summarized in the Discussion.

Complete Discussion

Our findings indicate that fertilization among sea urchins is intraspecies specific and that surface
components of both gametes are involved in the fertilization specificity. Results of intraspecies
specific fertilization between different gametes of several different individuals of the species S.
purpuratus displayed varying degrees of fertilization success.

Approximately one third of the examined individuals show significant differences in fertilization.
The percent of individual crosses of gametes yielding significantly reduced fertilization
specificity corresponds to the previously reported amount of “defective” gametes encountered
during fertilization (5) and egg agglutination experiments (9) However, in our study, crosses for
gametes of an individual that yield significantly reduced fertilization in one cross reached normal
levels with other individual of the opposite sex, suggesting that a low fertilization success is not
due to immature or defective gametes.

It seems intuitive that the molecules that mediate sperm-egg interactions may play an important
role in speciation since individuals are in separate gene pools if the sperm and egg cannot
interact to form a zygote. How these systems evolve so that once common ancestors become
reproductively isolate is not so obvious. Geographic isolation is believed to be the principal
mechanism of speciation of marine animals (6). However, speciation does not have to be
accompanied by major genomic reorganization (5, 7). A few mutations in bindin and its receptor
can be sufficient to accomplish reproductive isolation because these proteins are major
components of the fertilization mechanism. The hypothesis that bindins and their receptors
contain multiple adhesive elements would allow mutations to occur within an individual element
of bindin without catastrophic consequences for mutant individuals in the absence of a
simultaneous compensating mutation in the receptor.

In summary, fertilization among sea urchins appears intraspecies specific due to surface
components of both gametes. It is conceivable that these surface components contain multiple
adhesive elements. Based on our hypothesis, mutations in these elements may result in
reproductive isolation and speciation.