Sperm length variations in five species of cypridoidean non-marine ostracods (Crustacea)

Spermatozoa of the ostracod superfamily Cypridoidea include some of the longest in the animal kingdom, but unlike other so-called giant spermatozoa, they are aflagellate, probably evolved only once, and represent an exceptionally old trait. Sperm length variations within cypridoidean species remain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cell and tissue research 2016-11, Vol.366 (2), p.483-497
Main Authors: Smith, Robin J., Matzke-Karasz, Renate, Kamiya, Takahiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal populations
Animal reproduction
Animals
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Candonopsis
Crustacea
Crustacea - metabolism
Crustaceans
Cypridoidea
Heterocypris
Human Genetics
Ilyocypris
Male
Molecular Medicine
Ostracoda
Postmortem Changes
Proteomics
Regular Article
Species Specificity
Sperm
Spermatozoa - cytology
Trulla
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Summary:Spermatozoa of the ostracod superfamily Cypridoidea include some of the longest in the animal kingdom, but unlike other so-called giant spermatozoa, they are aflagellate, probably evolved only once, and represent an exceptionally old trait. Sperm length variations within cypridoidean species remain poorly known, a lack that hinders the development of hypotheses to explain their length and variation. For this study, the lengths of 500 spermatozoa from each of five species of freshwater cypridoidean ostracods, Candonopsis tenuis (Brady, 1886), Fabaeformiscandona subacuta (Yang, 1982), Heterocypris rotundata (Bronshtein, 1928), Ilyocypris japonica Okubo, 1990, and Notodromas trulla Smith and Kamiya, 2014, were measured, including the lengths of the posterior and anterior regions. No overall pattern in sperm variation was discernible. Length variations between species, between males of the same species, and within individual males varied from low ( Candonopsis tenuis ) to extraordinarily large ( Notodromas trulla and Fabaeformiscandona subacuta ). Sperm competition, cryptic female choice, sperm heteromorphism, and testis size are unlikely to explain all of the variations observed. Age structures of the populations sampled might play a role in explaining some intraspecific variation. The differing amounts of variation in sperm characters revealed in this study suggest that multiple evolutionary trends and pressures shape sperm lengths in this superfamily.
ISSN:0302-766X
1432-0878
DOI:10.1007/s00441-016-2459-x