gametes

Groups of corals release all of their eggs and sperm once a year, but the timing of their spawning is under threat from climate change.

Mary Hagedorn is racing to save Earth’s coral reefs by developing techniques for freezing the colonial animals’ gametes.

Sperm-binding, peptide–coated beads work as an implantable contraception device in mice and as a means of selecting human sperm for assisted reproduction techniques, researchers show. 

Disease risk can be transmitted epigenetically via egg and sperm cells, a mouse study shows.

Pierre Comizzoli, a reproductive physiologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, chats about his efforts to rescue endangered species from extinction using in vitro fertilization as well as novel gamete preservation techniques.

A National Zoo researcher works to perfect gamete preservation and in vitro fertilization techniques in order to better manage endangered populations.