Autoradiographic study of kinetics of spermatogenesis in Ascaris lumbricoides

The kinetics of meiosis and spermiogenesis in Ascaris lumbricoides in vitro was studied by keeping 12 mature males in nutrient medium. The spermatocytes were made radioactive by supplementing the medium with 3H-thymidine for 2 h, following which they were transferred to fresh medium without 3H-TdR. The nematodes were then killed for preparing histological and squash preparations of the testis. An analysis of the migration of "hot" spermatocytes till the formation of mature spermatozoa, in Kodak AR-10 autoradiograms, suggested that the duration of meiosis and spermiogenesis was a little more than 5.5 and 7.6 days, respectively. The total duration of these two events was about 13.1 days when radioactive spermatozoa were detected for the first time.