Self-incompatibility response induced by calcium increase in sperm of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis

Many hermaphroditic organisms possess a self-incompatibility system to avoid self-fertilization. Recently, we identified the genes responsible for self-sterility in a hermaphroditic primitive chordate (ascidian), Ciona intestinalis: sperm-side polycystin 1-like receptors s-Themis-A/B and egg-side fibrinogen-like ligands on the vitelline coat (VC) v-Themis-A/B. Here, we investigated the sperm behavior and intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in response to self/nonself-recognition. We found that sperm motility markedly decreased within 5 min after attachment to the VC of self-eggs but not after attachment to the VC of nonself-eggs and that the apparent decrease in sperm motility was suppressed in low Ca2+ seawater. High-speed video analysis revealed that sperm detached from the self-VC or stopped motility within 5 min after binding to the self-VC. Because s-Themis-B contains a cation channel domain in its C terminus, we monitored sperm [Ca2+]i by real-time [Ca2+]i imaging using Fluo-8H-AM (AAT Bioquest, Inc.). Interestingly, we found that sperm [Ca2+]i rapidly and dramatically increased and was maintained at a high level in the head and flagellar regions when sperm interacted with the self-VC but not when the sperm interacted with the nonself-VC. The increase in [Ca2+]i was also suppressed by low-Ca2+ seawater. These results indicate that the sperm self-recognition signal triggers [Ca2+]i increase and/or Ca2+ influx, which elicits a self-incompatibility response to reject self-fertilization in C. intestinalis.