Fine structure of the storage micropocket of spermatozoa in the ovary of the guppy Poecilia reticulata.

Abstract

To investigate the internal fertilization of the guppy Poecilia reticulata, the present electron microscopic observations were focused on the morphology of the sperm storage site in females. In the ovary of the mature female guppy, many spermatozoa were found in a synaptic knob-shaped micropocket (SSP) as the sperm storage (probably sperm entry) site on the follicle surface which was the expanded blind alley of a small tract extending from the ovarian cavity. Oocytes in the developmental stage of oil droplet formation already showed the attachment of the terminal end of the small tract opening into the ovarian cavity. The lateral wall of the tract attaching to the follicle surface consisted of epithelial cells fast jointed with tight junctions and desmosomes. The thick lateral wall of SSP was constructed with complex epithelial cell layers, and the terminal bottom was comprised of a single layer of epithelial cells on the surface of the follicular layer, which consisted of a very thin thecal cell layer, basement membrane, and granulosa cell layer. The vitellus was enclosed by the follicular layer and thin chorion, in which the micropyle was absent. In fully-grown oocytes, the germinal vesicle containing comparative short chromosomes did not always locate in the vicinity of the storage SSP of spermatozoa.