Nuclear changes during spermiogenesis in a pulmonate snail

Abstract

Changes in both external form and internal arrangement of nuclear material have been investigated in the differentiation of the sperm of the pulmonate snail, Otala lactea. Sperm head differentiation begins with a flattening of the previously spherical nucleus and a thickening of the nuclear envelope covering the anterior and posterior surfaces of that nucleus. Tail filaments can be seen in the cytoplasm at this time. At a slightly later period the mitochondria begin to form the tail filament sheath and at this time the nucleus begins to elongate in a direction parallel to the future axis of the sperm. At the same time the nuclear material begins to orient itself at right angles to the nuclear surface which lines the pit occupied by the centriole. As nuclear elongation proceeds, this orientation of nuclear substance takes on the appearance of 60 A thick sheets bent in a direction parallel to the sperm axis. Soon the sheets fill the entire nucleus. The nucleus then begins to twist along its axis so that it starts to take on the mature, flame-shaped form. At this time the flat sheets begin to disappear and in the mature sperm head they are no longer visible (see Text-fig. 2 B).