Summary
Gametogenesis is normal through meiosis and the earliest phases of spermiogenesis in male-sterile mice homozygous for the recessive, pleiotropic, mutation hpy (hydrocephalic-polydactyl). However, structurally complete sperm flagella were not encountered. Instead, partially assembled axonemal structures and/or poorly organized aggregates of other tail components (mitochondria, outer coarse fibers) were seen at the posterior poles of nuclei in older spermatids. The ultrastructure of centrioles in spermatids was normal, but that of axonemes associated with them was not. These findings suggest that the observed flagella dysgenesis results from defects in assembly rather than from defective intiation centers. Released “gametes” usually consisted of distorted nuclei and associated acrosome enclosed in a relatively close fitting plasma membrane. Perturbations of sperm head development were also encountered; they included extreme nuclear elongation, and distortion of the acrosome and underlying nuclear material by inpushings of finger-like processes of Sertoli cells. It is believed that sperm head anomalies are secondary consequences of the mutant condition. The findings support the view that the hpy locus represents one of a number of genes primarily involved in the mediation of flagella development.
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Aided by a grant from The National Foundation-March of Dimes
A preliminary account of some of the findings was presented elsewhere (Bryan, 1976)
The author wishes to express his thanks to Mrs. Charla Danforth and Mr. James Barrows for capable technical assistance, to Dr. Walter J. Humphreys, Director, The Central Electron Microscope Laboratory, University of Georgia, for use of the facility, and to Dr. Willard F. Hollander, Iowa State University, for original breeding stock and helpful discussions
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Bryan, J.H.D. Spermatogenesis revisited. Cell Tissue Res. 180, 187–201 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00231951
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00231951