Studies on c-AMP contents in sea urchin eggs fertilized with normal and x-irradiated sperm

Intracellular levels of cyclic 3', 5'-adenosine monophosphate (c-AMP) seemed to remain constant through the first cleavage cycle of sea urchin eggs. X-irradiation to the sperm, which induced the first cleavage delay, did not change this level. Although it was shown in the previous paper that X-ray-induced cleavage delay was reduced by caffeine but not by aminophyline, both caffeine and aminophyline caused an increase in c-AMP levels. These results indicated the possibility that c-AMP does not mediate this caffeine effect on cleavage delay. (auth.)