The chemical composition of bull semen with special reference to nucleic acids, free nucleotides and free amino acids

Abstract

Data are presented on the chemical composition of bull spermatozoa and seminal plasma. The dry weight of the spermatozoon was 16.5 x 10-9 mg of which 3.38 x 10-9 mg was deoxyribonucleic acid. Ribonucleic acid, if present at all, occurred only in trace amounts. The free nucleotide content of bull spermatozoa is unexpectedly large and constitutes on average 0.75% of the dry weight of the cell. The spermatozoa contain only traces of a few free amino acids. The seminal plasma contains 5.72 [mu]moles of total amino acids/ml. The spermatozoon proteins were found to undergo slow degradation to free amino acids on incubation at 37[degree].