title: The sperm structure of Cryptocercus punctulatus Scudder (Blattodea) and sperm evolution in Dictyoptera.
abstract: Sperm of the dictyopteran key taxon Cryptocercus punctulatus was examined. It has largely maintained a blattodean groundplan condition, with a three-layered acrosome, an elongate nucleus, a single centriole, a conspicuous centriole adjunct material, two connecting bands (=accessory bodies), and a long functional flagellum with a 9+9+2 axoneme provided with accessory tubules with 16 protofilaments and intertubular material. These sperm characters are shared with several other polyneopterans. The sperm of C. punctulatus is very similar to what is found in Periplaneta americana and species of other groups of roaches, including the sperm of Loboptera decipiens described here for the first time. The general sperm organization here described can be assumed for the groundplan of Insecta and Pterygota. The following evolutionary path can be suggested: after the split between Cryptocercidae and the common ancestor of Isoptera, the typical pattern of sperm formation was altered very distinctly, resulting in a duplication or multiplication (Mastotermitidae) of the centrioles. Mastotermes has maintained a certain sperm motility, but with a very unusual apparatus of multiple flagella with a 9+0 axoneme pattern. After the split into Mastotermitidae and the remaining Isoptera, sperm motility was completely abandoned, and different modifications of sperm components occurred, and even the loss of the sperm flagellum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, 53100, Italy.
authors.forename: Romano
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dallai
authors.forename: Apisit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thipaksorn
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gottardo
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mercati
authors.forename: Ryuichiro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Machida
authors.forename: Rolf Georg
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Beutel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003058:Cockroaches / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008297:Male; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000648:ultrastructure*
keywords: insect phylogeny; insect sperm structure; polyneopteran sperm; termite sperm