Temple-Smith P D, Bedford J M
J Exp Zool. 1980 Nov;214(2):161-71. doi: 10.1002/jez.1402140206.
Didelphis spermatozoa released from different levels of the epididymis exhibit a series of changes that reflect events involved in the process of their maturation. Their progression through the duct is accompanied by a rotation of the sperm head on the axis of the tail, by an eccentric movement of the cytoplasmic droplet to the anterior region of the midpiece from where it is discarded, by appearance in the posterior midpiece of regular submembranous electron-dense ridges, and by visible condensation of the mitochondrial cristae and matrix. The latter seems to correlate generally with onset of the ability for progressive motility acquired by most spermatozoa as they reach the lower corpus epididymidis. This phase is associated also with the beginnings of the pairing by the acrosomal surface that characterizes mature spermatozoa of New World marsupials. Use of lectins and cationized ferric colloid as affinity markers served to reveal changes occurring also in the character of the sperm head and tail surface prior to pairing. This investigation strengthens the idea gained from previous study of an Australian marsupial, Trichosurus, that the complexity of sperm maturation in the epididymis of Metatheria is broadly comparable to that observed in most eutherian mammals.
从附睾不同部位释放的负鼠精子呈现出一系列变化，这些变化反映了其成熟过程中所涉及的事件。它们在附睾管中的移动伴随着精子头部绕尾部轴线的旋转、细胞质滴从丢弃部位向中段前部的偏心移动、在中段后部出现规则的膜下电子致密嵴以及线粒体嵴和基质的可见凝聚。后者似乎通常与大多数精子到达附睾体下部时获得的进行性运动能力的开始相关。这个阶段还与顶体表面配对的开始有关，这种配对是新世界有袋类成熟精子的特征。使用凝集素和阳离子化铁胶体作为亲和标记物有助于揭示在配对之前精子头部和尾部表面特征也发生的变化。这项研究强化了从先前对澳大利亚有袋动物毛尾袋貂的研究中获得的观点，即有袋类动物附睾中精子成熟的复杂性与大多数真兽类哺乳动物中观察到的情况大致相当。
