An autoradiographic study of sperm exchange and storage in a sea hare,Phyllaplysia taylori, a hermaphroditic gastropod (Opisthobranchia: Anaspidea)
✍ Scribed by Beeman, Robert D.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1970
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 708 KB
- Volume
- 175
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-104X
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Tritiated thymidine autoradiography was used to distinguish exogenous from endogenous sperm and to determine the translocations of labeled sperm within the simultaneously hermaphroditic, reciprocally copulating gastropod Phyllaplysia taylori. Heavily labeled sperm start leaving the ovotestis within 14 days after injection of H^3^‐thymidine. These endogenous sperm are stored, evidently less than 20 days, in the ampulla prior to copulation. During copulation the endogenous sperm are tightly bound to one another by extracellular material forming a seminal strand. This seminal strand is moved by ciliary action along the spermoviduct fold and genital groove to the tip of the extended penis. As the seminal strand issues from the tip of the labeled animal's penis into the copulatory duct of an unlabeled mate, the extracellular material of the strand dissolves, releasing the now exogenous sperm (some of which are labeled). Most of the labeled exogenous sperm are found in the seminal receptacle within two hours after copulation. Within five hours some of these sperm have become oriented with their heads buried into the receptacle lining. Surplus exogenous sperm flow into the copulatory bursa where they are destroyed.