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V.—Genetics of Gametes. V. The Frequency Distribution of the Head Length of Rabbit Spermatozoa, and a Search for Dimorphism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

R. A. Beatty
R. A. Beatty
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Council Unit of Animal Genetics, Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh
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Synopsis

The possible effect of genes on the spermatozoa carrying them can be investigated by searching for two kinds of spermatozoa in the semen of heterozygous males. During the development of appropriate biometrical methods, it became desirable to specify more exactly the basic form of variation in size between spermatozoa sampled from the same ejaculate and mounted on the same nigrosin-eosin preparation. The present study of the head length of rabbit spermatozoa indicates that apart from rare spermatozoa with exceptional dimensions the variation of spermatozoa on a preparation follows almost completely a “normal” distribution, the variance being independent of the mean and homogeneous from one preparation to another. The coefficients of skewness (g1) and of kurtosis (g2) and the statistic k4, average close to zero, g2 and k4 being homogeneous between preparations. There is evidence of heterogeneity in skewness between preparations, but the reality of the heterogeneity is not quite certain. A potential dimorphism between spermatozoa bearing X- and Y-chromosomes is inherent in the material, but analysis showed no significant evidence of any dimorphism in head length.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , 1961 , pp. 72 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1961

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References

References to Literature

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