Cycle of the seminiferous epithelium in a marsupial species, the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), and estimation of its duration
Minjie Lin A B E , Amanda Harman A and Terry P. Fletcher C DA Cooperative Research Centre for the Conservation and Management of Marsupials, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia.
B Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Animal Biotechnology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China.
C Cooperative Research Centre for the Conservation and Management of Marsupials, The Perth Zoo, South Perth, WA 6151, Australia.
D The Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Lincoln 8152, New Zealand.
E To whom correspondence should be addressed. email: minjie.lin@newcastle.edu.au
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 16(3) 307-313 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD02059
Submitted: 24 July 2002 Accepted: 19 February 2004 Published: 8 April 2004
Abstract
We investigated the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium in a marsupial, namely the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), using semithin sections of seminiferous tubules embedded in Spurr’s resin. Using 14 steps of spermatid development as markers, we were able to class tubular cross-sections into 10 well-defined stages of the seminiferous epithelial cycle. The duration of one cycle was 13.5 days, as determined by injections of [3H]-thymidine and autoradiographic examination of the most advanced sperm cells at 2 h and 17 days after injection. The durations of stages I–X were 21.4, 66.4, 54.1, 47.0, 29.8, 28.5, 25.3, 25.0, 12.0 and 15.9 h, respectively, estimated by the relative percentage of occurrence of each stage. It was estimated that the life spans of the main germ cells were as follows: type B spermatogonia, 5.4 days; primary spermatocytes, 16.7 days; secondary spermatocytes, 0.7 days; and spermatids, 21.4 days. The results suggest that the kinetics of spermatogenesis in marsupials show a similar pattern to that in eutherians.
Extra keywords: spermatogenesis, thymidine labelling.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Dr David Kay and Professor John Rodger for their helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Australian Government’s Cooperate Research Centres Program.
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