Dj. Ackerman et al., THE ULTRASTRUCTURE OF SPERMATOZOA OF AFRICAN BUFFALO (SYNCERUS-CAFFER) IN THE KRUGER-NATIONAL-PARK, Animal reproduction science, 36(1-2), 1994, pp. 87-101
African buffalo spermatozoa were studied by means of electron microsco
py, which revealed structural features typical of mammalian spermatozo
a. The head is paddle-shaped, dorsoventrally flattened, and displays a
n acrosome which has a unilateral apical thickening. The tail is typic
ally divided into a midpiece, principal-piece and end-piece which disp
lay characteristic mammalian features. The neck region contains coaxia
lly oriented mitochondria, occasionally interspersed with circumferent
ially oriented mitochondria. Long stalk-like appendages are found on s
ome cytoplasmic droplets. Long, thin filaments, projecting from the di
stal mitochondrial sheath and parts of the principal-piece, are also o
bserved. The annulus differs from those previously described for mamma
lian spermatozoa. It has a flat cone shape and the fibrous sheath of t
he principal-piece extends between the distal portion of the annulus a
nd the axoneme to form a close contact with the base of the annular ri
ng. A retro-annular recess is absent. The results of scanning and tran
smission electron microscopy counts showed that 87.4% and 81.6%, respe
ctively, of the sperm appeared normal in terms of the evaluated abnorm
alities.