The Sperm Cell : Fertilizing Power, Surface Properties, Motility, Nucleus and Acrosome, Evolutionary Aspects Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Spermatology, Seillac, France, 27 June-1 July 1982

, Jean ANDRE Universite de Paris XI, ORSAY, France. Sperm cells have long been considered as the most highly specialized of all living cells. They surely are, being very diverse, very complex, containing organelles which do not exist in any other cell -such as acrosome or crystallized mitochondria- and being endowed with a very unique behaviour, that is to meet and recognize the ovum, pierce its protective envelopes and inject into its cytoplasm a most precious deposit, the haploid genome of the species. It is Baccio Baccetti's merit to have felt the need for a confrontation of the scientists working on sperm in order to clarify the apparent complexity of the enormous amount of knowledge accumulated on the subject. Thus, he successfully inaugurated the series of the InternationaZ Symposia on SpermatoZogy. The Seillac edition is the fourth in the series. After an initial stage during which morphology was predominant, our meetings have turned more and more towards function. It has been the will of the French Organizing Committee to devote this meeting mainly to Eutherians, and, among those, to man, in connection with the conflicting necessities to help the sterile couples and to contrul the population explosion at the surface of the world.

1 : Evaluation and control of the fertilizing power of sperm.- Evaluation and control of the fertilizing power of sperm. (invited paper).- Spermatid differentiation in man during senescence.- Sperm structure and function in 70 year old humans.- In vitro studies of the fertilizing ability of the sperm from adolescent, adult and aged male Syrian hamsters.- Apparent improvement in human semen after long-term storage.- Selection among spermatozoa.- Transport of spermatozoa of known age in the female genital tracts of the rabbit and mouse, and their performance in vitro.- The fecundity of sperm populations in female rabbits : does sperm selection exist?.- The capacitation rate of rat sperm in vitro.- Interaction of zona-free hamster eggs with fresh and frozen ram spermatozoa in vitro.- Glycolytic activity of human spermatozoa from normal and infertile semen.- Respiratory stimulation of sea urchin spermatozoa in a synthetic jelly peptide and the fragments.- The effect of different substrate combinations on the survival of ram cauda epididymal spermatozoa exposed to 1 mM-RS ?-Chlorohydrin.- 2 : Surface properties of sperm cells.- The behavior of sperm before fertilization, (invited paper).- Oocyte structure and the design and function of the sperm head in eutherian mammals. (invited paper).- Role of the cumulus in zona penetration.- Freeze-fracture observations on the interaction of human spermatozoa with zona-free hamster oocytes.- Influence of initiation of forward motility on the fertilizing ability of immature boar spermatozoa in in vivo homologous and in vitro heterologous systems of insemination.- Acquisition of zona binding structures by ram spermatozoa during epididymal passage.- Is sperm ?-L-Fucosidase responsible for sperm-egg binding in Ciona intestinalis?.- Sperm/zona pellucida reactions leading to fertilization of mouse eggs in vitro.- A freeze-fracture study on epididymal and ejaculated spermatozoa of Macaca fascicularis.- Surface observations on some mammalian spermatozoa after rapid-freezing and deep-etching.- A localized surface antigen of guinea pig sperm is precipitated by monoclonal antibodies to an apparently “internal”, heat-stable component.- Establishment of sperm surface topography during development analyzed with monoclonal antibodies.- Sperm maturation antigens.- Distribution of fibronectin on cellular surface during the rabbit spermiogenesis.- Interaction of guinea-pig spermatozoa with immunoglobulins : evidence of Fc?-specific membrane receptors on spermatozoa.- Identification and localization of two boar sperm-membrane proteins.- Antigenic determinants on the sperm cell surface.- Relationship between Y-chromosome and H-Y antigen expression in human spermatozoa.- Surface changes in monkey spermatozoa during epididymal maturation and after ejaculation.- E.M. localization of sugars having affinity for lectins on the ram spermatozoa.- The joint spermatozoa of Dytiscidae.- The fate of secreted glycoproteins in the mammalian epididymis analysed by electron microscopic autoradiography.- Epididymal protein secretion.- 3 : Nucleus.- Some aspects of chromatin organization in sperm nuclei. (invited paper).- Nuclear proteins in spermatozoa and their interactions with DNA. (invited paper).- Structural elements of the mammalian sperm nucleus.- Transformation and stabilization of chromatin in ram spermatids.- Chromatin aggregation of human sperm.- Presumed impairment of the X inactivation during meiotic prophase : a common phenomenon causing spermatogenic breakdown in various cytogenetic conditions.- Chromatin decondensation ability of the human spermatozoon.- Microtubules and spermiogenesis.- Are microtubules indispensable for sperm morphogenesis ? A comparative structural study.- Aniline blue staining of human spermatozoon chromatin. Evaluation of nuclear maturation.- Cytoplasmic control of the transformation of sperm nucleus into male pronucleus in the mouse : an experimental approach.- 4 : Acrosome.- The acrosome, its hydrolases, and egg penetration. (invited paper),.- Induction of acrosome reaction in Ciona intestinalis.- Freeze-fracture observations on the ionophore-induced acrosomal reaction in ram spermatozoa.- Acrosomal activation of mammalian sperm.- Ultrastructural localization of proacrosin and acrosin during the acrosome reaction in ram spermatozoa.- 5 : Sperm motility.- Control mechanisms in sperm flagella. (invited paper).- Sperm motility : mechanisms and control. (invited paper).- A study of the motility of Limulus polyphemus spermatozoa using quasielastic light scattering and cinematography.- Studies on sperm motility by laser-light scattering.- Human sperm velocities, evaluation by microcinematography and laser doppler velocimetry (LDV).- Laser light scattering study of spermatozoa motility of domestic animals.- Computer quantitation of irradiated hamster sperm motility.- The evolution of mammalian sperm motility in the male and female reproductive tracts.- Movement characteristics of hamster spermatozoa.- Do capacitated human spermatozoa show an “activated” pattern of motility?.- Direction of rolling in mammalian spermatozoa.- Observation of the tailwaves of mouse spermatozoa.- Influence of flagellar wave development on human sperm movement in seminal plasma.- Initiation of sperm flagellar movement using rat demembranated sperm model : nucleotide specificities.- Direct evidence that cyclic AMP is an indispensable factor for initiation of sperm motility in salmonid fishes.- Protein-carboxyl methylation in spermatozoa.- Loss of activity of motile components in rat spermatids during differentiation to virtually immotile testicular spermatozoa.- The movement of distal ends of sperm flagella with and without a terminal filament.- 6 : Sperm structure in relation to function and phylogeny..- Sperm structure in relation to function and phylogeny. (invited paper).- Sperm size, body mass and reproduction in mammals.- The neck region of mouse spermatids : a morphological and functional analysis.- Study of spermatozoa in lemur hybrids (Prosimians — Primates).- Comparative histo-enzymatic study of spermatozoa in monkey and mouse.- Acrosome development during spermiogenesis and epididymal sperm maturation in Australian marsupials.- Evolution of the mammalian epididymis.- Synthesis of mitochondrial proteins from mouse epididymal spermatozoa during spermatogenesis.- Some aspects of spermatogenesis and spermatology in teleost fish.- Nucleus and acrosome of tick sperm : position and structure (with comparisons between ixodid and argasid ticks).- The giant acrosome of Geogarypus (Arachnida, Pseudoscorpiones) and phylogenetic considerations.- A comparative study on the spermatogenesis of Trichoptera and Lepidoptera.- Spermatozoa and Diptera phylogeny.- Two different lines in Tubifex tubifex spermiogenesis.- Trends in the evolution of flatworm spermatozoa.- A new look at Monogenea and Digenea spermatozoa.- The reverse movement of a snail spermatozoon.- Authors’ index.