Monday, April 9, 2007

Spermatozoan structure and size

Humans
The human sperm cell is the reproductive cell in males. Sperm cells come in two types; "male" and "female." Sperm cells that give rise to female (XX) offspring after fertilization differ in that they carry an X chromosome, while sperm cells that give rise to male (XY) offspring carry a Y chromosome. The "female" sperm cell also differs phenotypically in that it has a larger head in comparison to the "male" sperm cell.



Males
In male humans, sperm cells consists of a head 5 µm by 3 µm and a tail 50 µm long. The Reynolds number associated with spermatozoa is in the order of 1×10-2, so it is known that the spermatozoa exhibits laminar flow. Spermatozoan stream lines are straight and parallel. The tail flagellates, which propels the sperm cell (at about 1-3 mm/minute in humans) by whipping in an elliptical cone. The cell is characterized by a minimum of cytoplasm. During fertilization, the sperm's mitochondria are destroyed by the egg cell, and this means only the mother is able to provide the baby's mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA, which have an important application in tracing maternal ancestry. However it has been recently discovered that mitochondrial DNA can be recombinant

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