Rotational and Oscillatory Components of the Tailwave in Ram Spermatozoa

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Abstract
A Fourier analysis was made of the motion of the neck and junction of the middle-piece to the principal-piece of six rotating ram spermatozoa. This showed that the wave was elliptically helical with a ratio of minor/major axes of the ellipse of 0.08 ± 0.04 at the neck and 0.17 ± 0.02 at the junction of the middle-piece to the principal piece. The major axes of the elliptically helical beat at these two points on the sperm-tail are in the same plane. The elliptically helical tailwave and the rotation of the spermatozoon as a whole are in the opposite sense. A graphical synthesis confirms that the tailwave is nearly planar. An additional mechanism is suggested to explain the variation in elliptical components of the tailwave between the two fixed points on the sperm-tail.

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