Spermatological characteristics of the genus Taenia inferred from the ultrastructural study on Taenia hydatigena

Abstract

The present study attempts to establish the sperm ultrastructure baseline for Taenia hydatigena, which is essential for the future research on the location of specific proteins involved in spermatogenesis in this species. Thus, the ultrastructural organisation of the mature spermatozoon is described by means of transmission electron microscopy. Live tapeworms were obtained from an experimentally infected dog in the Department of Pathology and Public Health of the Agronomic and Veterinary Institute Hassan II of Rabat (Morocco). The spermatozoon of T. hydatigena is a filiform cell, which is tapered at both extremities and lacks mitochondria. It exhibits all the characteristics of type VII spermatozoon of tapeworms, namely a single axoneme, a crested body, spiralled cortical microtubules and nucleus, a periaxonemal sheath and intracytoplasmic walls. Other interesting characteristics are the presence of a 2000 nm long apical cone in its anterior extremity and only the axoneme in its posterior extremity. The ultrastructural characters of the spermatozoon of T. hydatigena are compared with those of other cestodes studied to date, with particular emphasis on representatives of the genus Taenia.

Spermatological Characterization of the Cestode Meggittina gerbilli (Cyclophyllidea: Catenotaeniidae), a Parasite of Gerbils, Gerbillus gerbillus and Gerbillus campestris (Rodentia: Muridae) in Tunisia

“…Thus, sperm cells with two axonemes are present in the orders Diphyllobothriidea, Spathebothriidea, Haplobothriidea, Onchoproteocephalidea, and Trypanorhyncha [21][22][23][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. Contrarily, spermatozoa with one axoneme are present in the orders Caryophyllidea, Cyclophyllidea, Lecanicephalidea, Nippotaeniidea, Phyllobothriidea, and Tetrabothiidea [21][22][23][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]. In the order Diphyllidea, there are some discrepancies between the spermiogenesis process and the resulting spermatozoa.…”

“…In the Cestoda, there are numerous ultrastructural studies describing spermiogenesis and/or the spermatozoon, particularly in the order Cyclophyllidea [ 23 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. However, in the Catenotaeniidae family, ultrastructural aspects of spermiogenesis and/or the spermatozoon have only been studied in two species, namely Catenotaenia pusilla (Goeze, 1782) (Catenotaeniinae Spassky, 1950) and Skrjabinotaenia lobata (Baer, 1925) (Skrjabinotaeniinae) [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Immunopathological Assessment of Hydatid Cyst and Cysticercus Tenuicollis Sonicated Protoscoilces Antigens in Mice

“…Numerous physical and antigenic similarities exist among different cestodes. T. hydatigena was employed as a model organism for Taenia saginata, Echinococcus granulosus, and other cestodes (Mcmanus, 2014;Miquel et al, 2015).…”

Molecular Identification and an Ultrastructure Study of Hymenolepis Diminuta Mature Spermatozoon: New Data of Phylogenetic Importance

“…As to the ultrastructure of cestodes spermatozoon, several studies were published in the last few decades. These studies focused on order Cyclophyllidea and described the spermatozoon of many species (Miquel et al, 2015). Nonetheless, studying the ultrastructure H. diminuta spermatozoon was neglected and the available data were obtained by Rosario (1964); Kelsoe et al (1977) and Robinson and Bogitsh (1978) who did not provide a full description of H. diminuta mature spermatozoon.…”