[Table of Contents]

Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 2, S1028 (2007)

Regular Articles

The First Observation of 3-Dimensional Motion and Twist in Sperm Flagella of the Stag Beetle Prosopocoilus inclinates
Masaru IRIE, Miyoko KUBO-IRIE1) and Hideo MOHRI2)
Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
1)
University of Air, Chiba 261-8586, Japan
2)
National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan & University of Tokyo, Komaba 113-0033, Japan
(Received 6 December 2006 / Accepted 18 April 2007 / Published 20 November 2007)

Abstract

We discovered the 3-dimensional twist motion of sperm flagella of the stag beetle Prosopocoilus inclinates. The morphological features are discussed with experimental data obtained through various ‘imaging techniques’ including those developed in thermo-nuclear fusion research. The helical deformation length observed in the optical micrograph agreed statistically with those of transmission electron micrographs (TEM) on both ultra-thin section and negatively stained samples. This indicated that the helical twist mechanism of flagellar axoneme could be safely discussed from TEM. In order to elucidate this, we applied the newly developed Constrained Electron Beam Tomography (CEBT) technique adapted from our unique fusion plasma diagnosis. This requires basic assumptions of “the optimum deformation” and “the coherent length” as mathematical constraints. The results are the key parameters of the flagellum deformation, e.g. the helical pitch (HP) of both axoneme and mitochondrial derivatives as well as the phase slip (PS) between them. They allow the quantitative discussion on this motion.

Keywords

Insect sperm flagella, 3-dimensional helical motion, Constrained Electron Beam Tomography (CEBT), coherent length (CL), helical pitch (HP), phase slip (PS)

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.2.S1028

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References

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Masaru IRIE, Miyoko KUBO-IRIE and Hideo MOHRI, Plasma Fusion Res. 2, S1028 (2007).