Important evolutionary and ecological consequences arise from the ability of female turtles to store viable spermatozoa for an extended period. Although previous morphological studies have observed the localization of spermatozoa in Pelodiscus sinensis oviduct, no systematic study on the identification of genes that are involved in long-term sperm storage has been performed. In this study, the ...

In mammals, transit through the epididymis, which involves the acquisition, loss and modification of proteins, is required to confer motility and fertilization competency to sperm. The overall dynamics of maturation is poorly understood, and a systems level understanding of the complex maturation process will provide valuable new information about changes occurring during epididymal transport. ...

Spermatozoa generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in physiological amounts which play a role in sperm functions during sperm capacitation acrosome reaction (AR) and oocyte fusion. In addition damaged sperm are likely to be the source of ROS. The most important ROS produced by human sperm are hydrogen peroxide superoxide anion and hydroxyl radicals. Besides human seminal plasma and sperm posses...

The seminal fluid of males from vertebrate and invertebrate taxa is a complex mixture of biologically potent molecules and is far more than a medium to support the successful transit of sperm. But the complexity of this mixture, even in the fly, is only now being fully realised. Recent research is highlighting extraordinarily high evolutionary lability within the genes that encode seminal fluid...

Cannabinoids, the main active components of marijuana, have been shown to exert different adverse effects on male reproduction both in vertebrates and invertebrates. The main effects of endocannabinoids, a particular group of endogenously produced cannabinoids, in sperm are the inhibition of motility, capacitation and acrosome reaction, all fundamental processes necessary for oocyte penetration...

Three genes in the major sperm protein (MSP) gene family from the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis were cloned and sequenced. In contrast to the absence of introns in Caenorhabditis elegans MSP genes, these genes in G. rostochiensis contained a 57 nucleotide intron, with normal exon-intron boundaries, in the same relative location as the intron in Onchocerca volvulus. The MSP genes ...

Male mate choice is critical for understanding the evolution and maintenance of sexual/asexual mating complexes involving sperm-dependent, gynogenetic species. Amazon mollies (Poecilia formosa) require sperm to trigger embryogenesis, but the males (e.g. Poecilia mexicana) do not contribute genes. Males benefit from mating with Amazon mollies, because such matings make males more attractive to c...

Male genitalia in several insect species are asymmetry in right and left shape. However, the function of such asymmetric male genitalia is still unclear. We found that the male genitalia of the damselfly Calopteryx cornelia (Odonata: Calopterygidae) are morphologically symmetric just after emergence but asymmetric after reproductive maturation. Males remove rival sperm stored in the female burs...

The mouse strains C3H/Bi McL and C57BL/McL were shown to have markedly different spermatozoa, and, by combining four different sperm dimensions by means of a discriminant function, it was possible to identify individual spermatozoa from the two strains with a calculated misclassification probability of 2.1%. Hybrids had intermediate sperm discriminant values. The sperm from five C3H++ C57 chime...