Rotating the plane of imposed vibration can rotate the plane of flagellar beating in sea-urchin sperm without twisting the axoneme

Abstract

When the head of a sea-urchin sperm is held in the tip of a micropipette and vibrated laterally, the flagellum beats in phase with the imposed vibration. Rotation of the plane of pipette vibration around the head axis induces a corresponding rotation of the plane of beating, in both live and reactivated sperm. Detailed analysis of the waveforms occurring at different stages of this rotation shows that the characteristic asymmetry of the flagellar bending waves rotates along with the plane of beat. The positions of small polystyrene beads attached as markers on the axonemes of demembranated sperm flagella appear unaffected by the rotation of the beat plane and asymmetry. The imposed rotation of the waveform is thus the result of a rotation of the coordinated pattern of sliding among the doublet tubules of the axoneme, and is not accompanied by a twisting of the whole axonemal structure. These data indicate that neither the plane of flagellar beat nor the direction of beat asymmetry is tightly dependent upon a structural or chemical specialization of particular members of the nine outer doublet microtubules, but that both are the result of some regulatory structure that can be forced to rotate relative to the outer structure of the axoneme.