Apical Sperm Hook Morphology Is Linked to Sperm Swimming Performance and Sperm Aggregation in Peromyscus Mice.

ABSTRACT: Mammals exhibit a tremendous amount of variation in sperm morphology and despite the acknowledgement of sperm structural diversity across taxa, its functional significance remains poorly understood. Of particular interest is the sperm of rodents. While most Eutherian mammal spermatozoa are relatively simple cells with round or paddle-shaped heads, rodent sperm are often more complex and, in many species, display a striking apical hook. The function of the sperm hook remains largely unknown, but it has been hypothesized to have evolved as an adaptation to inter-male sperm competition and thus has been implicated in increased swimming efficiency or in the formation of collective sperm movements. Here we empirically test these hypotheses within a single lineage of Peromyscus rodents, in which

SUBMITTER: Hook KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8471468 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature