Publication Date
2-11-2019
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Biological Sciences
Keywords
Chromatin, Species-specific, Sperm development, Nucleus, Morphology, Quantification
Abstract
The physical arrangement of chromatin in the nucleus is cell type and species-specific, a fact particularly evident in sperm, in which most of the cytoplasm has been lost. Analysis of the characteristic falciform (“hook shaped”) sperm in mice is important in studies of sperm development, hybrid sterility, infertility, and toxicology. However, quantification of sperm shape differences typically relies on subjective manual assessment, rendering comparisons within and between samples difficult.
We have developed an analysis program for morphometric analysis of asymmetric nuclei and characterized the sperm of mice from a range of inbred, outbred, and wild-derived mouse strains. We find that laboratory strains have elevated sperm shape variability both within and between samples in comparison to wild-derived inbred strains, and that sperm shape in F1 offspring from a cross between CBA and C57Bl6J strains is subtly affected by the direction of the cross. We further show that hierarchical clustering can discriminate distinct sperm shapes with greater efficiency and reproducibility than even experienced manual assessors, and is useful both to distinguish between samples and also to identify different morphological classes within a single sample.
Our approach allows for the analysis of nuclear shape with unprecedented precision and scale and will be widely applicable to different species and different areas of biology.
Copyright Date
2-11-2019
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights Holder
The Authors
Provenance
Received from author
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
11 pgs
File Size
1795 KB
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society for the Study of Reproduction. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Skinner, B. M., Rathje, C. C., Bacon, J., Johnson, E. E. P., Larson, E. L., Kopania, E. E. K., ..., & Ellis, P. J. I. (2019). A high-throughput method for unbiased quantitation and categorization of nuclear morphology. Biology of Reproduction, 100(5), 1250–1260. DOI: 10.1093/biolre/ioz013
Publication Title
Biology of Reproduction
Volume
100
Issue
5
First Page
1250
Last Page
1260
ISSN
1529-7268
Recommended Citation
Skinner, B. M., Rathje, C. C., Bacon, J., Johnson, E. E. P., Larson, E. L., Kopania, E. E. K., ..., & Ellis, P. J. I. (2019). A high-throughput method for unbiased quantitation and categorization of nuclear morphology. Biology of Reproduction, 100(5), 1250–1260. DOI: 10.1093/biolre/ioz013