A trade-off between thickness and length in the zebra finch sperm mid-piece

Mendonca, Tania; Birkhead, Tim R.; Cadby, Ashley J.; Forstmeier, Wolfgang; Hemmings, Nicola

Abstract

The sperm mid-piece has traditionally been considered to be the engine that powers sperm. Larger mid-pieces have therefore been assumed to provide greater energetic capacity. However, in the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata, a recent study showed a surprising negative relationship between mid-piece length and sperm energy content. Using a multi-dimensional approach to study mid-piece structure, we tested whether this unexpected relationship can be explained by a trade-off between mid-piece length and mid-piece thickness and/or cristae density inside the mitochondrial helix. We used selective plane illumination microscopy to study mid-piece structure from three-dimensional images of zebra finch sperm and used high-resolution transmission electron microscopy to quantify mitochondrial density. Contrary to the assumption that longer mid-pieces are larger and therefore produce or contain a greater amount of energy, our results indicate that the amount of mitochondrial material is consistent across mid-pieces of varying lengths, and longer mid-pieces are simply proportionately 'thinner'.

Citation

Mendonca, T., Birkhead, T. R., Cadby, A. J., Forstmeier, W., & Hemmings, N. (2018). A trade-off between thickness and length in the zebra finch sperm mid-piece. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1883), Article 20180865. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0865

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 29, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jul 25, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 25, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 3, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 9, 2023
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0962-8452
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2954
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 285
• Issue: 1883
• Article Number: 20180865
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0865
• Keywords: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences; General Environmental Science; General Immunology and Microbiology; General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Medicine
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/13465750
• Publisher URL: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.0865