In biology, polyspermy describes an egg that has been fertilized by more than one sperm. Diploid organisms normally contain two copies of each chromosome, one from each parent.

What do you mean by polyspermy?

Definition. The fertilization of an ovum by more than one sperm. Supplement. The ovum fertilized by more than one sperm results in having more than two copies of each chromosome — one from the ovum and one each from the sperms.

What is polyspermy and why is it bad?

Polyspermy is bad because, in addition to the extra set of chromosomes, a sea urchin sperm donates a centriole. The presence of additional centrioles during the first cell division will result in additional cleavage furrows and incorrect partitioning of the chromosomes (Fig.