Kinetic and photonic techniques to study chemotactic signaling in sea urchin sperm

Abstract Sperm from sea urchins are attracted by chemical cues released by the egg—a mechanism called chemotaxis. We describe here the signaling pathway and molecular components endowing sperm with single-molecule sensitivity. Chemotactic signaling and behavioral responses occur on a timescale of a few milliseconds to seconds. We describe the techniques and chemical tools used to resolve the signaling events in time. The techniques include rapid-mixing devices, rapid stroboscopic microscopy, and photolysis of caged second messengers and chemoattractants.