Comparative ultrastructure of cnidarian sperm

Abstract

Marine Cnidarian sperm consist of a head containing the nucleus and several electron dense vesicles. These vesicles aie anterior to the nucleus in the Hydrozoan and Scyphozoan sperm and adjacent to the posterior legion of the nucleus in the Anthozoan sperm. They are Golgi in origin and do not coalesce. They may be a primitive acrosome. Mitochondria may number four to five in the Hydrozoan and Scyphozoan sperm while they form an aggregate in the Anthozoans. Both centrioles persist in the mature spermatozoa. The distal centriole gives rise to the long flagellum and has associated with it nine pericentriolar processes. Copyright © 1974 by the American Society of Zoologists.