title: Morphology and fine structure of Acipenser persicus (Acipenseridae, Chondrostei) spermatozoon: Inter-species comparison in Acipenseriformes.
abstract: This study describes morphology and fine structure of the Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) (Acipenseridae, Chondrostei) spermatozoon. The results show that the spermatozoon of A. persicus is differentiated into an elongated head (length: mean±SD: 7.1±0.5μm) with an acrosome (length: 1.2±0.2μm), a cylindrical midpiece (length: 1.8±0.5μm), a flagellum (length: 50.3±5.9μm) and a total length of 59.2±6.2μm. Ten posterolateral projections (PLPs) arise from the posterior edge of the acrosome and there were 3 endonuclear canals that traversed the nucleus from the acrosomal end to the basal nuclear fossa region. Three to six mitochondria were in peripheral midpiece and the proximal and distal centrioles were located near to "implantation fossa" and basement of the flagellum. The axoneme has a typical eukaryotic structure composed of 9 peripheral microtubules and a central pair of single microtubule surrounded by the plasma membrane. Lateral fins were observed along the flagellum. The fins started and ended at 0.5-1μm from midpiece and at 4-6μm from the end of flagellum. There were significant differences in the size of almost all measured morphological parameters between males and flagellar, midpiece and nucleus characters were more isolated parameters that can be considered for detecting inter-individual variations. This study showed that sperm morphology and fine structure are similar among sturgeon species, but the dimensions of the parameters may differ.
authors.affiliation: South Bohemia Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia, Vodnany 389 25, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Azadeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hatef
authors.forename: Sayyed Mohammad Hadi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Alavi
authors.forename: Shahrouz Baradaran
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Noveiri
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Poorbagher
authors.forename: Ali Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Alipour
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pourkazemi
authors.forename: Otomar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Linhart
mesh_terms: D000177:Acrosome / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D005399:Fishes / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D005407:Flagella / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D055101:Semen Analysis; D013045:Species Specificity; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000166:cytology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*