Swimming by Spinning: Spinning-Top Type Rotations Regularize Sperm Swimming Into Persistently Progressive Paths in 3D.

ABSTRACT: Sperm swimming is essential for reproduction, with movement strategies adapted to specific environments. Sperm navigate by modulating the symmetry of their flagellar beating, but how they swim forward with asymmetrical beats remains unclear. Current methods lack the ability to robustly detect the flagellar symmetry state in free-swimming spermatozoa, despite its importance in understanding sperm motility. This study uses numerical simulations to investigate the fluid mechanics of sperm swimming with asymmetrical flagellar beats. Results show that sperm rotation regularizes the swimming motion, allowing persistently progressive swimming even with asymmetrical flagellar beats. Crucially, 3D sperm head orientation, rather than the swimming path, provides critical insight into the flagellar sy

SUBMITTER: Ren X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11809349 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature