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Rheotaxis facilitates upstream navigation of mammalian sperm cells
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Kantsler, Vasily, Dunkel, Jörn, Blayney, Martyn and Goldstein, Raymond E. (2014) Rheotaxis facilitates upstream navigation of mammalian sperm cells. eLife, Volume 3 . Article number e02403. doi:10.7554/eLife.02403.001
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02403.001.
Abstract
A major puzzle in biology is how mammalian sperm maintain the correct swimming direction during various phases of the sexual reproduction process. Whilst chemotaxis may dominate near the ovum, it is unclear which cues guide spermatozoa on their long journey towards the egg. Hypothesized mechanisms range from peristaltic pumping to temperature sensing and response to fluid flow variations (rheotaxis), but little is known quantitatively about them. We report the first quantitative study of mammalian sperm rheotaxis, using microfluidic devices to investigate systematically swimming of human and bull sperm over a range of physiologically relevant shear rates and viscosities. Our measurements show that the interplay of fluid shear, steric surface-interactions, and chirality of the flagellar beat leads to stable upstream spiralling motion of sperm cells, thus providing a generic and robust rectification mechanism to support mammalian fertilisation. A minimal mathematical model is presented that accounts quantitatively for the experimental observations.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics Q Science > QP Physiology |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Human biology, Embryology, Human, Biophysics, Mammals -- Spermatozoa, Mammals -- Spermatozoa -- Motility, Rheotaxis | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | eLife | ||||||||
| Publisher: | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 2050-084X | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 27 May 2014 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Volume 3 | ||||||||
| Article Number: | Article number e02403 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.7554/eLife.02403.001 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||||
| Funder: | European Research Council (ERC) | ||||||||
| Grant number: | 247333 (ERC) |
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