Talk:Spermatozoon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Spermatozoon article.
Article policies
Sexology and sexuality
Sexuality Portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sexology and sexuality, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to human sexuality on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the welcome page to become familiar with the guidelines.
B This article has been rated as B-class on the quality scale.
High This article has been rated as high-importance on the importance scale.
Assessment comments
Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject
MCB Portal
This article is within the scope of the Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject. To participate, visit the WikiProject for more information. The WikiProject's current monthly collaboration is focused on improving Restriction enzyme.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale.
Top This article is on a subject of Top-importance within molecular and cellular biology.

Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · history · refresh · how to use this template)

rated top as high school/SAT biology content - tameeria 15:12, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
Other languages WikiProject Echo has identified Spermatozoon as a foreign language featured article. You may be able to improve this article with information from the German language Wikipedia.
The contents of Sperm were merged into Spermatozoon and they now redirect here. For the contribution history and old versions of the merged article please see its history; for its talk page, see here

Contents

[edit] spermatogenesis

oops, there's already spermatogenesis that talks about the production of sperm. i'll fix another day. T 09:41, 10 May 2004 (UTC)


I've moved what i wrote on this page, to the bottom of what was already at spermatogenesis. I'm not sure whether spermatogenesis should be merged into this page yet. (i don't feel like doing it at the moment. no rush.) T 08:40, 12 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

Can someone give a pronunciation for speramtozoon? It's such a strange-looking word! Adambisset 22:09, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The OED states that the pronunciation for "-zoon" is two syllables. Most people pronounce the first syllable as rhyming with "know", and the 2nd syllable is simply "an". Abstraktn 23:40, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I greatly appreciate the topic of sperm. I consider it sacred. So sacred that I believe the article is short and needs to be expanded. :-) -Amit

[edit] Differences

So what's the difference between sperm (the secretion, not the spermatozoa) and semen? Up to now, no one has explained the difference on Wikipedia. When I say sperm, I mean the mass noun, not the count noun. 2004-12-29T22:45Z 18:55, August 27, 2005 (UTC)

The difference is that you're using it wrong, sperm are the sex cells that are the "active ingrediant", if you will, of semen. I believe Sperm is a plural without any real singular, best to say sperm cell... Could be wrong, of course... --StarkRG 08:32, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

um, the part say a zygote can form into an organism, but isn't it already an organism? it has its own dna, etc. is it just said that way for an agenda?

[edit] Sex determination

The article reads "Generally, the sex of the offspring is determined by the sperm cells, ... X & Y ...". If I'm remembering my high-school biology correctly, this is only true for mammals, amphibians use W & Y, with the female being heterogeneous, the male is homogeneous (I think it's WW but I might be wrong), reptiles use gestation temperature, fish and non-vertebrates use assorted other systems. CS Miller 23:16, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

The previous version correctly stated that the spermatozoon determines the offspring sex in mammals, but its use of "XX" and "XY" was ambiguous as it could imply that the sperm carried 2 sex chromosomes, when in fact it only carries one (haploid). I tried a clearer, but longer version. Anyone else has a better way of saying it? Cadmus72

[edit] Lifespan of sperm in the female?

Over at Sexual intercourse there's been a claim added to the article about how long sperm can survive within a woman after intercourse. Varying claims of nine and four days have been added. Does anyone here have a reliable source on spermatozoic lifespan in humans? How long after intercourse is a sperm still capable of fertilizing an egg? Kasreyn 02:44, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image from this page used in news article

Quality of sperm declines as men age, Physorg.com, http://www.physorg.com/news68790025.html 203.100.208.24 11:37, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "In Female Humans" section

That the research may aid in treating infertility for males with dysfunctional sperm is stated no less than 4 times, in slightly different ways. I believe the section should be rewritten a bit, although without leaving out former information of course. -- Northgrove 13:23, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I just want to know where the journal article (not the news article) for spermatogenesis in females is. The news article source did not even said what article in Developmental Cell it was based in.

ok I found it, it is In Vitro-Differentiated Embryonic Stem Cells Give Rise to Male Gametes that Can Generate Offspring Mice’, Nayernia, K. et al. Developmental Cell 11, 1–8, July. I found it in a Newcastle press release: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/content.phtml?ref=1152547764

[edit] sperm = spermatozoon?

I thought that sperm was the same as the 'fluid', aka 'cum', although I doubt if that is an official word. But if it is the same as a sperm cell, then what is the official word for 'cum'? DirkvdM 18:07, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

  • Semen is the liquid, sperm are the individual cells. 124.177.25.202 05:19, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Single celled organism

Isn't a spermatozoon a single celled organism? If it is, shouldn't it be mentioned in the article? 68.215.47.224 00:07, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

no it is not, it is single celled, but not an organism, it is part of an organism (such as a leukocyte/white blood cell) Sahands 03:27, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Amoeboid Sperm

Some species such as C.elegans have amoeboid sperm that lack the flagellum and the axonem, but posses a unique pseudopod-cytoskeleton by which they move (like ceratocyte crawling?). Shall this exception be included into the article?

A reference is

The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol 108, 55-66, Copyright © 1989 by The Rockefeller University Press S Sepsenwol, H Ris and TM Roberts A unique cytoskeleton associated with crawling in the amoeboid sperm of the nematode, Ascaris suum

--Benjamin.friedrich 13:47, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gender determination

Is it possible for a male to have only male, or Y, sperm and therefore produce only male offspring?

In short -- no. From a theoretical perspective, maybe genetic engineering can produce such an abomination.

Even from a theoretical perspective, X chromosome carries vital genetic material and without it the organism cannot be viable.

This is not a problem. The ovum always supplies an X chromosome for the offspring. The male (father) necessarily has got X chromosomes in his normal cells, but it's not necessary that the spermatozoons carry X chromosomes 193.171.121.30 12:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dead sperm cell disposal

I'm looking for information on the excretion or disposal of dead sperm. Are the cells disposed of in some way, or is there no mechanism for this? I am refering more specifically to humans. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.249.152.110 (talk) 15:06, 8 December 2006 (UTC).

  • sperm are automatically attacked by macrophages in the female reproductive tract if that's what you mean. There seems to be a slight dip in the immune response near ovulation to aid fertilization Sovbeos (talk) 17:12, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cum

Do we really need that little bit at the very beginning that states "Also known as cum."? That seems rather low-brow. And anyway, wouldn't "cum" refer to "semen," rather than sperm? (EarthRise33 01:38, 13 December 2006 (UTC))

No. We did not need it, and I already reverted it. This article is specifically concerning reproductive sperm cells. AKAing that to "cum" is innacurate and non-encyclopedic. I reverted the change as vandalism. (Not to mention, the insertion was badly formatted and cut into the proper definiation.) --Willscrlt 02:07, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

Does this article attract enough vadalism to warrant requiring editors to login? I have recently restored missing content three times. Curiously, the content went missing, not from vandalism, but from flawed attempts to revert vandalism. I figure if we reduce the vandalism, entire sections of the article will also disappear less often. adanko 2006-12-18

I vote for the sentence "Women particularly like to have their orifices filled with this substance." to be left in for comic relief. LOL. Dxnihilo 09:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article name

According to Wikipedia's policy on article naming, this article should be name "Sperm." ~ UBeR 07:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Content edit needed

In the article - <"Unlike females, when males jack off egg comes out of their penis.">....as low brow as it can get. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.133.198.56 (talk) 08:13, 18 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Sperm cell versus spermatozoon

It is incorrect that Sperm cell redirects here. Spermatozoons are motile sperm cells with flagella. However, plants and other organisms produce non-motile sperm cells which are not spermatozooa. They are still sperm cells though. Therefore, the redirection is kind of like redirecting dog to poodle. - tameeria 20:22, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Addendum: Pollen is not eqivalent to sperm cell. Pollen grains are gametophytes that produce sperm cells. The whole plant section needs to be corrected (or preferably moved to sperm cell). - tameeria 20:25, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Old vandalism

This page currently claims: "All humans are made up of 50% sperm." I assume this is due to overlooked vandalism (unless it's a poor attempt at stating that all humans received 50% of their chromosomes from their father). I clicked through some earlier versions and they also have it. I don't have the time right now to hunt down where the change happened. Can someone else look into it? - tameeria 19:53, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New sperm page

I've created a separate page for sperm to replace the redirect here to account for the fact that not all sperm cells are spermatozoa. The new page contains a link here, as well as sections on spermatia and other non-motile sperm variants. - tameeria 01:16, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I've also created a sperm (disambiguation) page. Should the current content of sperm be moved to sperm cell and replaced with the disambiguation page? I found plenty of articles that use "sperm" synonymous with semen, so having sperm be a disambiguation page would make sense. The entry on Wiktionary states that it can mean either sperm cell or semen. - tameeria 23:25, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Main reproductive cell?

Unless my high school biology teacher was SEVERELY lax, there are no other reproductive cells within the human male. I'm changing it to read "...reproductive cell."DrExtreme 01:52, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sex Determination 2

I have a question with regards to a common rumour which is making the rounds down in Brazil, namely that male spermatozoa are faster or slower or live longer or whatever, and that it is thus possible to choose the sex of the offspring by having intercourse at a certain point of ovulation, or using certain positions. I have been refuting this theory in discussions, and could not find a credible scientific source covering it, only this sort of thing -- http://biblia.com/baby.html. I would love to hear from a medical/biol science source 201.18.112.29

Heh, I remember hearing that same old story from my biology teacher in high school! I'm not sure if it has a scientific basis. This article I found: Seidel GE Jr (1999): Sexing mammalian spermatozoa and embryos--state of the art. J Reprod Fertil Suppl. 54: 477-87, says the only difference between spermatozoa carrying the X-chromosome (female) or the Y-chromosome (male) is that the first kind contains 3-5% more DNA (2.8% in humans, X being the larger chromosome compared to Y). This can be used in the lab using DNA staining and a cell sorter to sort sperm into "male" and "female" spermatozoa (yielding about 90% accuracy) which can then be used to artificially inseminate a female with the spermatozoa fraction carrying the desired sex chromosome. I'm not sure if this is done in human reproductive medicine yet though. All articles I could find were testing this on animals, e.g. pigs, sheep, cats etc. Another more recent article: Grant VJ, Chamley LW (2007): Sex-sorted sperm and fertility: an alternative view. Biol Reprod. 76(2): 184-8, suggests that mammalian females might be able to influence the sex of the baby by influencing which type sperm will be successful in fertilization (e.g. through developing ova that are more or less penetrable/receptive to X and Y sperm), so that even sorted spermatozoa aren't a guarantee for success. So my guess would be that all those ideas on choosing your baby's sex through timing/position do not have a scientific basis at all. - tameeria 15:44, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Errors in the flow around a sperm cell

Quoted from the page "Spermatozoan stream lines are straight and parallel."

This can not be the case around a voluminous body in motion. Check here for a good picture of what stream lines look like around a sphere in laminar flow The blue lines are stream lines. The picture would not differ much around a spermatozoon. http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath211/Image3277.gif The stream lines are not parallel nor straight.

I will remove the sentence unless there is some valid arguments against.

Davidjonsson 20:34, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

  • I don't know what you mean, but I feel like the line in question is different from what you are saying. are you referring to flow around the egg or within the uterus as a whole? I think this refers to a smaller environment than the uterus, and egg involvement wouldnt make sense Sovbeos (talk) 17:18, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] proposing a shift of focus - What´s with Vasectomys?

What´s with the focus, of this article. So, if we are talking about sperm, why is the next logical step, sperm within women fertilizing them? why not vasectomys? and even if we go down the fertilizing route, why is there no information, as to the lifespan of sperm, or how to prevent becoming pregnant? the motto of the article seems to be: "the sperm shalt exist, and it shalt fertilize the woman, and thou shalt not question your choice in that matter, but be scared of the sex has it has grave consequences." with regards, female in distress!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.5.107.45 (talk) 13:56, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Laminar flow of sperm

I find these sentences confusing and therefore perhaps more information is needed. Spermatozoa cannot have a reynolds number. It must be the semen (or whatever the whole sperm plus fluid is called) that you are referring to. If you have a pure lump of spermatozoa it will simply be a tissue. It is the seminal fluid produced by the seminal vesicles and such like secretory gland that provides the characteristic nature of semen. Lisa256B (talk) 17:03, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Additional information on the maturation of seprmatozoa

It would be nice to have additonal information about the maturation of the spermatozoa once they have been released from the seminferous tubules. Including in the epididymis, ampulla of vas and also after ejaculation once the spermatozoa have reached the vagina dnd uterus (Capacitation- i'm unclear of what this actually entails) and also within the proximity of the oocyte (acrosome reactions). Perhaps this would be more clear if this was listed as a separate heading and reshuffle the information in order to make it more clear.Lisa256B (talk) 17:18, 7 June 2008 (UTC)