Abstract
Microviscosity of the highly purified plasma membranes isolated from the maturing goat caput, corpus and cauda epididymal sperm, was measured using l,6-diphenyl-l,3,5-hexatriene as the lipophilic probe at varying temperatures (12–42°C). As shown by the Arrhenius plot of the data each of the maturing sperm membranes had two distinct lipid phase transitions in the temperature zones 19–25°C and 34–37°C. The low-temperature transitions for the immature caput- and mature cauda-sperm membranes were noted at 19–20°C, and 24–25°C, respectively, whereas both these membranes showed high temperature transition at 36–37°C. The maturing corpus-sperm membrane had phase transitions at 21–22°C and 35–36°C that were significantly different from those of the immature/mature sperm membranes. The data implicate significant alteration of the sperm membrane structure during epididymal maturation. The phase transition of the mature male gametes at 36–37°C may have a great impact on the subsequent events of the sperm life cycle since the mature spermatozoa that are stored in the epididymis a few degrees below the body temperature, experience higher temperature when ejaculated into the female reproductive tract.
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Abbreviations
- PM:
-
Plasma membrane
- DPH:
-
l,6-diphenyl-l,3,5-hexatriene
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Rana, A.P.S., Majumder, G.C. Lipid phase transition in the plasma membrane of the goat epididymal maturing spermatozoa. J. Biosci. 20, 525–530 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02703535
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02703535