Summary
Direct injection of spermatozoa or spermatogenic cells into oocytes bypasses many normal fertilization processes, yet it is a powerful tool to analyze basic principles/mechanism underlying normal fertilization and prefertilization processes. Birth of normal, fertile mouse offspring following injection of round spermatid nuclei into oocytes suggests that all the postmeiotic modifications in male gametes evolved as processes solely dedicated for the delivery of their nuclei into the eggs. Birth of normal mouse offspring following injection of infertile spermatozoa with grossly misshaped heads indicates that structurally abnormal spermatozoa are not necessarily genomically abnormal. The spermatozoa with disrupted plasma membranes are generally considered “dead”, but they are capable of producing normal offspring by injection, suggesting that cell death and nucleus death are not synonymous at least for the spermatozoa.
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Yanagimachi, R. Production of mice through intracytoplasmic injection of sperm or spermatogenic cells. Protoplasma 206, 278–281 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01288216
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01288216