Roles of pH and cyclic adenosine monophosphate in the acquisition of potential for sperm motility during migration from the sea to the river in chum salmon.
In the natural process of the migration of chum salmon from the sea to the river, spermatozoa moved from the testis to the sperm duct, and the pH value of seminal plasma, concentration of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) in the sperm cells, and potential for sperm motility increased. Cyclic AMP levels and the potential for motility gradually increased when testis spermatozoa with no capacity for movement were incubated in the artificial seminal plasma of which the pH was much the same as, or higher than, the pH of natural seminal plasma from the sperm duct. Such correlation in motility, pH, and cyclic AMP suggests that the increases in seminal pH and intracellular cyclic AMP level during passage of spermatozoa from the testis to the sperm duct cause the acquisition of potential for motility. Motility of testicular spermatozoa demembranated with Triton X-100 was very low in fish caught in the sea, while motility of spermatozoa from the posterior portion of the sperm duct was much higher in fish caught in the river. Furthermore, nondemembranated, intact spermatozoa showed a lag in the timing of the acquisition of potential for motility vs. demembranated spermatozoa: The demembranated sperm exhibited the potential earlier than the nondemembranated sperm. These data suggest that increase in activity of the motile apparatus, the axoneme, is a prerequisite, in part, for the acquisition of sperm motility, whereas the development of some function of the plasma membrane also contributes to this phenomenon.
Biological Laboratory, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan.
S
S
Morisawa
K
K
Ishida
M
M
Okuno
M
M
Morisawa
D000818:Animals; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000378:metabolism*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007424:Intracellular Fluid / Q000378:metabolism; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D012474:Salmon / Q000502:physiology*; D012661:Semen / Q000378:metabolism; D012671:Seminiferous Tubules / Q000378:metabolism; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000502:physiology*; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism
D000242:Cyclic AMP