The sperm of bambooleaf wrasse, a marine teleost, are immotile when they are diluted in a solution isotonic to the seminal plasma, but they begin to swim when they are suspended in sea water. What changes arise in morphology of the sperm cell after the motility initiation? The semen collected from the abdomen of a matured wrasse was mixed with either thinned sea water or sea water. A drop of the same specimen was placed on a cleaned silicon wafer, respectively. After fixed chemically, they were rinsed with distilled water and dried naturally in room temperature. These samples were examined carefully with use of an atomic force microscopy. Although the axonemes of intact sperms were found to be crushed as if the axonemes were cut open along doublet microtubules. The motility initiated sperm was strong enough to resist the force caused by surface tension of water in the drying process and could maintain the structure of the axoneme. These experimental facts suggest that the binding characteristics in the structure of the axoneme after the initiation of the motility were clearly changed stronger that before.
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