The induction and detection of diploid spermatozoa in Gallus domesticus

Colcemid at the dose level of 0.37 mg/kg/day was injected intraperitoneally to 3 sexually active chicken males for 3 consecutive days. 10-12 days after the first colcemid injection, 14-25% of the sperm population in the semen samples from the treated males was found to be diploid in DNA content by flow microfluorometric analysis. Cytogeneic and developmental analyses on early embryos indicate that, during the process of spermatogenesis, the male germ cells are most susceptible to colcemid treatment 10-12 days prior to the maturation of the spermatozoa which is equivalent to the primary through secondary spermatocyte stages in chicken males. By the application of an extremely unequal chromosomal translocation as a cytological marker of parentage, it is confirmed that the diploid sperm induced are capable of uniting with a normal haploid or diploid egg to produce a triploid or tetraploid zygote.