Nonprogressive sperm motility is characteristic of most completethaplotypes in the mouse

Abstract

SUMMARY: Epididymal sperm from male mice carryingt^w32(t¹²complementation group) exhibit a peculiar nonprogressive type of motility called ‘dancing’; sperm from congenie wild-type mice do not. To determine whether this effect was unique tot^w32or common to all t haplotypes, sperm from mice carrying otherthaplotypes were examined. A male was considered to have nonprogressive sperm if more than 20% of the motile sperm had nonprogressive trajectories. The mean percentage of nonprogressive but motile sperm for 33 wild-type and Brachyury males of various genetic backgrounds was 4. All males carryingt^w12(t^w1complementation group),t^w5ort^w73, and 56% of males carryingt⁰ort^Lub1had nonprogressive motile sperm. Five per cent of males carryingtchromatin or a deletion in the proximal (to the centromere) half of thetcomplex had nonprogressive motile sperm, but all males carryingtchromatin in the distal half of thetcomplex had nonprogressive motile sperm. These observations suggest that the factor or factors causing nonprogressive sperm motility may be common to all completethaplotypes, and located in the distal region of thetcomplex.