Phospholipase C zeta (PLCζ) is a candidate sperm-borne oocyte activating factor (SOAF) which has recently received attention as a potential biomarker of human male infertility. However, important SOAF attributes of PLCζ, including its developmental expression in mammalian spermiogenesis, its compartmentalization in sperm head perinuclear theca (PT) and its release into the ooplasm during fertil...

Spermiogenesis in the mammalian testis is the most critical post-meiotic developmental event occurring during spermatogenesis in which haploid spermatids undergo extensive cellular, molecular and morphological changes to form spermatozoa. Spermatozoa are then released from the seminiferous epithelium at spermiation. At the same time, the BTB (blood-testis barrier) undergoes restructuring to fac...

BACKGROUND Sexual reproduction in animals requires the production of highly specialized motile sperm cells that can navigate to and fertilize ova. During sperm differentiation, nonmotile spermatids are remodeled into motile spermatozoa through a process known as spermiogenesis. In nematodes, spermiogenesis, or sperm activation, involves a rapid cellular morphogenesis that converts unpolarized r...

The nuclear lamina (NL) is a filamentous protein meshwork, composed essentially of lamins, situated between the inner nuclear membrane and the chromatin. There is mounting evidence that the NL plays a role in spermatid differentiation during spermiogenesis. The mouse spermatid NL is composed of the ubiquitous lamin B1 and the spermatid-specific lamin B3, an N-terminally truncated isoform of lam...

OBJECTIVE Toxic fumes generated during the soldering process contain various contaminants released at sufficient rates to cause both short- and long-term health problems. Studies have shown that these fumes change the quality and quantity of semen fluid in exposed workers. The aim of the present study was to determine the potentially toxic effects of solder fumes on spermatogenesis in seminifer...

Hypercholesterolemia is a marker for several adult chronic diseases. Recently we demonstrated that sub/infertility is also associated to Hypercholesterolemia in rabbits. Seminal alterations included: abnormal sperm morphology, decreased sperm number and declined percentage of motile sperm, among others. In this work, our objective was to evaluate the effects of hypercholesterolemia on testicula...

During spermiogenesis, histones are massively replaced with protamines. A previous report showed that Drosophila males homozygous for a genomic deletion covering several genes including the protamine-like genes Mst35Ba/b are surprisingly fertile. Here, we have precisely deleted the Mst35B locus by homologous recombination, and we confirm the dispensability of Mst35Ba/b for fertility.

By means of qualitative staining experiments the characteristic protein changes which occur during maturation of salmon sperm can be followed. It can be observed that the replacement of histone by protamine takes place after completion of meiosis during an advanced stage of spermiogenesis.

Galeolaria gemineoa is a sessile broadcast-spawning marine invertebrate, whose spermatozoa have been regarded as a sensitive indicator for water quality monitoring. In this study, 10 steps of spermiogenesis have been identified at the ultrastructural level and this differentiation process has been recapitulated in vitro up to the point of spermiogenesis (step 7-9 spermatids). On completion of t...