Biomolecular Aspects of 

 Spermatozoan Motility 



FREDERICK G. E. PAUTARD 



Department of Biomolecular Structure, Leeds University, Leeds, England 



Since the advent of the electron microscope and the observations 

 of Manton and Clarke (1952) the universal character of the flagellum 

 and cilium based on a system of nine outer and two inner fibrils has 

 been well established, and there is an increasing body of literature 

 listing the detailed cytology of this arrangement (Bradfield, 1955; 

 Fawcett and Porter, 1954; Afzelius, 1959; Gibbons and Grimstone, 

 1960). On the other hand, although the biochemistry of spermatozoa 

 (Mann, 1954, for example) and the separated nagella from spermatozoa 

 (Nelson, 1954; Tibbs, 1957) have been studied, the contractile nature 

 of the "9 plus 2" flagellum in relation to other forms of motility still 

 remains obscure. In any study of spermatozoan movement there seem 

 to be three questions which need to be answered. First, is the flagellum 

 a self-contained contractile unit independent of the cell? Secondly, 

 what is the nature of the contractile substance and does it function in 

 the same way as in other motile systems? Lastly, if there is some com- 

 mon plan of movement throughout nature, what is it? 



The following account is an attempt to answer these questions and 

 is based on a study, spread over several years, of those 9 plus 2 nagella 

 which seem to offer the best opportunities for separation and analysis 

 of the contractile material. 



CHOICE OF SUBJECTS 



Biomolecular studies, based on x-ray diffraction, infrared absorp- 

 tion, and similar techniques, require relatively large quantities of ma- 

 terial, and this factor has restricted, for the present, the kinds of na- 

 gella that can be considered. Also, it was found that the cilia from ini- 

 tially promising subjects like Vorticella, Carchesium polypinum, 



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