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Updated: Jul 27, 2025

Measuring Sperm Guidance and Motility within the Caenorhabditis elegans Hermaphrodite Reproductive Tract
Published on: June 6, 2019
FLAGELLAR MOTILITY IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE INCORPORATION OF THE SPERM INTO THE EGG AT FERTILIZATION
David Epel1, Nicholas L Cross1, Naomi Epel1
1Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, U. S. A.
Abstract:
Cinemicrography of sea urchin fertilization reveals that the fertilizing sperm is one of the first sperm to attach to the egg. Just before the cortical reaction the fertilizing sperm ceases motility and then is incorporated into the egg without flagellar beating. The rate of incorporation is 5-11 μm/sec and is constant. Lytechinus pictus sperm rendered immotile by azide treatment can bind to and fertilize eggs but binding, and therefore fertilization, is blocked by azide treatment of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus gametes.
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