Comparative study of sperm chromatin condensation in the excurrent ducts of the laboratory mouse Mus musculus and spinifex hopping mouse Notomys alexis
M. Bauer A , C. Leigh A , E. Peirce A and W. G. Breed A BA Department of Anatomical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: bill.breed@adelaide.edu.au
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 17(6) 611-616 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD05027
Submitted: 4 March 2005 Accepted: 3 May 2005 Published: 17 June 2005
Abstract
In most mammals, post-testicular sperm maturation is completed in the caput and corpus epididymides, with storage occurring in the cauda epididymides. However, in the spinifex hopping mouse, Notomys alexis, epididymal sperm transit is rapid and some sperm storage occurs in the distal region of the vas deferens. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the rapid progression of sperm into the vas deferens in the hopping mouse results in late sperm maturation. To determine this, sperm nuclei from the epididymides and vasa deferentia of laboratory and hopping mice were compared for: (1) thiol content after staining with monobromobimane (mBBr); (2) chromatin resistance to acid denaturation following incubation with acetic alcohol and staining with acridine orange; and (3) chromatin resistance to in vitro decondensation after incubation with 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). It was found that, whereas laboratory mouse sperm completed chromatin condensation by the time they reached the cauda epididymidis, hopping mouse sperm nuclei from the vas deferens showed significantly less mBBr fluorescence and a greater proportion of sperm were resistant to decondensation with SDS than those in the cauda epididymidis. Therefore, the results of the present study indicate that, unlike in the laboratory mouse, hopping mouse chromatin condensation of spermatozoa continues in the vas deferens and this may be due, at least in part, to rapid epididymal transit.
Extra keywords: sperm maturation, vas deferens.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Emmae Ramsay, Department of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, for assistance with statistical analysis. For this study, M. B. was a recipient of an Australian Postgraduate Award. This work was supported, in part, by an ARC grant to W. B.
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