m·bry·ol·o·gy

[em-bree-ol-uh-jee]

NOUN [PLURAL EM·BRY·OL·O·GIES.)

1.
the science dealing with the formation, development, structure, and functional activities of embryos.
2.
the origin, growth, and development of an embryo: the embryology of the chick.
Related Question: What are the synonyms for embryology?
Source: Dictionary.com

Although it is happening every hour of every day, all over the world, the
story of egg meeting sperm is still a tale worth telling. Millions of candidates
set off on a long and perilous journey with a single target at the end, and if
the candidates reach their target, something completely unique is created. But
before we get to the end, let’s take a closer look at the journey.

The Main Characters

 Egg Sperm
How many ~250-280 million per
participate? 1 per menstrual cycle ejaculation

Largest diameter cell in the ~ 50μm long (10,000x

Size human body: ~0.12mm smaller than the egg)

Haploid, but meiosis II Haploid: 23

Ploidy uncompleted chromosomes

Mitochondria 100-200,000 75-100

Hundreds of millions of sperm vie for a single egg cell. The sperm cells are
streamlined in design for this purpose: a long tail to help them move, lots of
mitochondria to power that movement, genetic information to pass on, and
enzymatic proteins to get into the egg cell. The proteins are stored in a cap at
the front of the sperm known as an acrosome - this is the part that first
contacts the egg. The tail is called a flagellum, and it uses the energy made by
the mitochondria to move the sperm forward. Flagella use a lot of energy, so
they’re kept dormant until sperm enter the vagina. Sperm are haploid; they
contain one set of 23 chromosomes. They are created by the cellular division
process known as meiosis, which creates 4 sperm from a single germ cell.
They’re also very small, only about 50μm long. Sperm are ejaculated in
semen, a basic fluid with a pH of about 7.4.
The sperms’ target, is the egg. Since it is so much bigger than sperm, the egg
is the source of cytosol and organelles,particularly mitochondria, for the
future zygote. Unlike sperm, the egg has not completed meiosis - it’s stuck in
the Metaphase II stage of division. This means that the egg is haploid but
with sister chromatids still attached to each other. Also unlike sperm, the
meiotic division to create eggs, oogenesis, only makes one viable egg. The
egg is covered in a thick outer coating known as the zona pellucida, a layer of
carbohydrate-covered proteins that surrounds the plasma membrane. The
zona pellucida helps protect the egg and is responsible for mediating the
initial meeting of sperm and egg. Cortical granules filled with enzymes line
the inside of the cell membrane, and will help make sure that only one sperm
can fertilize the egg.