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A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids

BACKGROUND: A novel transient structure was observed in the spermatids of three ratite species using transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS: The structure first appeared at the circular manchette stage of sperm development, was most prominent during the longitudinal manchette phase and disappeare...

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Autores principales: du Plessis, Lizette, Soley, John T
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689617/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705947
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-104
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author du Plessis, Lizette
Soley, John T
author_facet du Plessis, Lizette
Soley, John T
author_sort du Plessis, Lizette
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A novel transient structure was observed in the spermatids of three ratite species using transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS: The structure first appeared at the circular manchette stage of sperm development, was most prominent during the longitudinal manchette phase and disappeared abruptly prior to spermiation. It was composed of regularly-spaced finger-like projections which were closely associated with the outer nuclear membrane, giving the nucleus a cogwheel-like appearance. The projections were approximately 30 nm long and 14 nm wide. Although a similar structure has been described in certain lizard and crocodile species, this is the first report of a similar structure in the developing spermatids of birds. CONCLUSIONS: The potential value of non-traditional characters, such as spermiogenesis and sperm ultrastructure, as phylogenetic markers has recently been advocated. The morphologically unique structure found in ratite spermatids provides additional evidence of a possible phylogenetic link between the reptiles and birds. It also endorses the basal positioning of the ratites as a monophyletic group within the avian phylogenetic tree.
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spelling pubmed-36896172013-06-22 A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids du Plessis, Lizette Soley, John T BMC Evol Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: A novel transient structure was observed in the spermatids of three ratite species using transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS: The structure first appeared at the circular manchette stage of sperm development, was most prominent during the longitudinal manchette phase and disappeared abruptly prior to spermiation. It was composed of regularly-spaced finger-like projections which were closely associated with the outer nuclear membrane, giving the nucleus a cogwheel-like appearance. The projections were approximately 30 nm long and 14 nm wide. Although a similar structure has been described in certain lizard and crocodile species, this is the first report of a similar structure in the developing spermatids of birds. CONCLUSIONS: The potential value of non-traditional characters, such as spermiogenesis and sperm ultrastructure, as phylogenetic markers has recently been advocated. The morphologically unique structure found in ratite spermatids provides additional evidence of a possible phylogenetic link between the reptiles and birds. It also endorses the basal positioning of the ratites as a monophyletic group within the avian phylogenetic tree. BioMed Central 2013-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3689617/ /pubmed/23705947 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-104 Text en Copyright © 2013 du Plessis and Soley; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
du Plessis, Lizette
Soley, John T
A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
title A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
title_full A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
title_fullStr A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
title_full_unstemmed A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
title_short A novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
title_sort novel transient structure with phylogenetic implications found in ratite spermatids
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689617/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705947
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-104
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