Sperm ultrastructure in representatives of six bivalve families from Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan

Abstract

The ultrastructure of sperm in seven species of bivalves, the representatives of six families, Arcidae (Anadara broughtonii, Arca boucardi), Anomiidae (Pododesmus macrochisma), Tellinidae (Macoma tokyoensis), Ostreidae (Crassostrea gigas), Myidae (Mya japonica) and Trapezidae (Trapezium liratum) is described. All the studied sperm were typical tail sperm, adapted to external insemination, which, however, had a specific structure. Differences were revealed in the form of head, acrosome structure and number of mitochondria. The studied species of the above families had their specific morphology, the Arcidae species had a bullet- or barrel-shaped head with four or five mitochondria in the middle part; the Anomiidae had conic head, the acrosome with periacrosome material and four mitochondria (a basic feature of sperm is the axial core entering periacrosome material and consisting of bundle of actin filaments); the Myidae had a curved conic head and four mitochondria; in the Tellinidae the head was bullet-shaped, the periacrosome material contained a fibril component and four mitochondria; the Trapezidae had sperm of a conic form with spherical acrosome. The spherical sperm of C. gigas were similar to sperm of Saccostrea commercialis and Crassostrea virginica, but with some distinctions in the acrosome substructure. The morphology of sperm testified to the correct attribution of the Crassostreidae family as a synonym to the Ostreidae family.