Fuentes-Albero María Del Carmen, Abril Sánchez Silvia, Ros-Santaella José Luis, Pintus Eliana, Luongo Chiara, Ruiz Díaz Sara, Barros García Carlos, Sánchez Calabuig María Jesús, García Párraga Daniel, García Vázquez Francisco Alberto
Biology Department, Avanqua-Oceanogràfic S.L., 46013 Valencia, Spain.
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Campus Mare Nostrum, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
Biology (Basel). 2021 Apr 22;10(5):355. doi: 10.3390/biology10050355.
Bottlenose dolphin () males follow many reproductive strategies to ensure their paternity. However, little is known about the sperm traits, including morphometric features, that contribute to their reproductive success. Our aim was to study dolphin sperm morphometry (a total of 13 parameters) in two adult males to evaluate (i) presumptive sperm subpopulations, (ii) the correlation of sperm morphometry with testosterone levels and (iii) the effect of refrigerated storage on the sperm morphometry. Sperm populations were classified into four principal components (PCs) based on morphometry (>94% of cumulative variance). The PCs clustered into two different sperm subpopulations, which differed between males. Furthermore, the levels of serum testosterone were positively correlated with the length of the midpiece but negatively correlated with head width and the principal piece, flagellum and total sperm lengths. Most of the sperm morphometric parameters changed during the storage period (day 1 vs. day 7), but only the principal piece length was affected by the storage temperature (5 °C vs. 15 °C). This is the first study to identify dolphin sperm subpopulations based on morphometry and the influence of serum testosterone and refrigeration on sperm morphometry.
宽吻海豚（）雄性采用多种繁殖策略来确保自己的父权。然而，对于有助于其繁殖成功的精子特征，包括形态特征，人们了解甚少。我们的目的是研究两只成年雄性海豚的精子形态（共13个参数），以评估（i）推测的精子亚群，（ii）精子形态与睾酮水平的相关性，以及（iii）冷藏储存对精子形态的影响。根据形态学（累积方差>94%），精子群体被分为四个主成分（PCs）。这些主成分聚集成两个不同的精子亚群，不同雄性之间存在差异。此外，血清睾酮水平与中段长度呈正相关，但与头部宽度、主段、鞭毛和精子总长度呈负相关。在储存期间（第1天与第7天），大多数精子形态参数发生了变化，但只有主段长度受储存温度（5°C与15°C）的影响。这是第一项基于形态学识别海豚精子亚群以及血清睾酮和冷藏对精子形态影响的研究。
