Figure 2
Characterisation of head-neck separation (wild-type). BF: brightfield. IF: immunofluorescence. (A) Before separation. (Left) BF. (Right) IF microscopy with the anti-Odf2 antibody (red). The tail (T) is connected to the head (H) and is positive for Odf2. (B) After separation. Separation occurs at the base of the head (*). (Left) Ageing. IF microscopy. Circles indicate the same region. T indicates the top of the tail. (Top Left) The tail is positive for Odf2 (red) (inset). (Bottom Left) The top of the tail is positive for Speriolin (red). Blue (Hoechst 33258): nucleus. (Middle and Right) Sonication. Transmission electron micrographs. (Middle) The proximal end of the tail contains the basal plate (BP) connected to the capitulum (Cap), segmented columns (Sc) connected to the outer dense fibres at the distal end (dotted line), the axoneme and peri-segmented column substances (double arrows). The white dotted line indicates the approximate position of the neck-midpiece connection. (Right) Normal arrangement of the tail components in the midpiece (cross-section). The total number of spermatozoa examined was 200 in each case, except it was 50 for transmission EM. N = 5 (different males). Ax: axoneme. H: head. M: mitochondria. N: nucleus.
