The
ultrastructure of spermatozoa of the Australian freshwater crocodile, Crocodylus
johnstoni Krefft, IB73 (Crocodylidae, Reptilia)
B.G.M.
JAMIESON, D.M. SCHELTINGA and A.D. TUCKER
Department
of Zoology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld, Australia
SUMMARY Mature
spermatozoa of Crocodylus johnstoni are filiform with a curved head,
consisting of acrosome complex (length 1.6 µm) and nucleus-(length 10.7 pm);
midpiece (length 4.8 pm); and elongate tail (length 49-61 µm). The acrosome
vesicle and underlying subacrosomal material form a conical sheath around the
anterior tapered nuclear rostrum. One to three endonuclear canals, each
containing putative perforatorial material, extend posteriorly from the tip of
the nuclear rostrum for approximately 5 pm, nearly half the length of the
nucleus. The midpiece is composed of 11 oblique rings of varying regularity,
each usually of six mitochondria, surrounding the elongate distal centriole.
The mitochondria are subspheroidal to slightly elongate and possess few septate
to (more externally) concentric cristae; a central dense body reported for Caiman
crocodilus is questionably present. Nine peripheral dense fibres, closely
associated with the triplets of the distal centriole, are lost within the
anterior principal piece; those at doublets I and 8 are the longest and are
separated from their doublets in the principal piece, as in other reptiles. A
well defined annulus separates the midpiece from the principal piece. The
principal piece consists of a 9+2 axoneme, investing fibrous sheath and plasma
membrane and is followed bv the endpiece which lacks the fibrous sheath. The spermatozoon
of C. johnstoni is apomorphic relative to Chelonia and Sphenodon in
reduction of concentric mitochondrial cristae but is less similar to that of
ratites than is that of Caiman crocodilus, differing from ratites in the
longer, multiplied perforatoria. The compact dense sheath around the central
singlets of the distal centriole is a possible crocodilian autapomorphy.