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Spermatozoa of Pseudinae (Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae), with a test of the hypothesis that sperm ultrastructure correlates with reproductive modes in anurans
Author(s) -
Garda Adrian A.,
Costa Gabriel C.,
Colli Guarino R.,
Báo Sônia N.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.10238
Subject(s) - biology , ultrastructure , axoneme , sperm , anatomy , zoology , spermatozoon , botany , flagellum , genetics , gene
We describe, for the first time, the sperm ultrastructure of the two genera of Pseudinae. Based on sperm ultrastructure, the five species herein examined can be separated into three groups: one containing Pseudis paradoxa , P. bolbodactyla , and P. tocantins , the second containing P. minuta , and the third containing Lysapsus laevis . The midpiece is similar in all species and auxiliary fibers and the undulating membrane are absent. In Pseudis a subacrosomal cone and a multilaminar structure ( P. minuta ) or a granular material ( P. paradoxa group) are seen above the nucleus. Lysapsus laevis has only remnants of the subacrosomal cone. All species have peripheral fibers associated with the outer doublets of the axoneme. We tested the hypothesis of correlation between the presence of an undulating membrane and fertilization environments in anurans using a concentrated changes test (CCT) based on the Hay et al. (Mol Biol Evol 1995;12:928–937) hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships among anuran families. Only a subset of the resolved topologies derived from the Hay et al. (1995) cladogram, where Ranoidea is the sister‐group of Sooglossidae, produced significant probabilities of the CCT. Therefore, support for the correlation between sperm ultrastructure and fertilization environments in anurans is, at best, equivocal. J. Morphol. 261:196–205, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.