Sperm phenotype and its relationship to somatic and germ line genotype: A study using mouse aggregation chimeras☆

[摘要] ThemousestrainsC3H/BiMcLandC57BL/McLwereshowntohavemarkedlydifferentspermatozoa,and,bycombiningfourdifferentspermdimensionsbymeansofadiscriminantfunction,itwaspossibletoidentifyindividualspermatozoafromthetwostrainswithacalculatedmisclassificationprobabilityof2.1%.Hybridshadintermediatespermdiscriminantvalues.ThespermfromfiveC3HC57chimeraswerecharacterizedusingthediscriminantfunction,anditwasfoundthatonechimerahadC57-likesperm,anotherhadC3H-likesperm,whileeachoftheotherthreehadspermofbothphenotypes.Innocasedidthespermpopulationsofchimerasresemblethoseofhybrids.AdetailedanalysisofthespermdimensionsofthechimerasshowedthatthedifferencesbetweenthetwopopulationsofspermandthevariancesofthesepopulationsarethesameasforC3HandC57spermpopulationsfrompurestrainmice.Theseobservationsimplythatspermdimensionsaredeterminedatthelevelofindividualspermatozoabutdonotdifferentiatebetweenintrinsic(germline)andextrinsic(Sertolicell)control.However,theproportionsofC3H-typeandC57-typesperminthechimeraswerefoundtobecorrelatedwiththeproportionsofC3H-derivedandC57-derivedoffspringbutnotwiththeproportionsofC3HandC57cellsinsomatictissues.Itisarguedthatthedifferencesinspermdimensionsbetweenthetwostrainsareduetogenesexpressedthroughthegermline.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）