| Title |
Exceptional sperm cooperation in the wood mouse
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Nature, July 2002
|
| DOI | 10.1038/nature00832 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Harry Moore, Katerina Dvoráková, Nicholas Jenkins, William Breed |
| Abstract |
Spermatozoa from a single male will compete for fertilization of ova with spermatozoa from another male when present in the female reproductive tract at the same time. Close genetic relatedness predisposes individuals towards altruism, and as haploid germ cells of an ejaculate will have genotypic similarity of 50%, it is predicted that spermatozoa may display cooperation and altruism to gain an advantage when inter-male sperm competition is intense. We report here the probable altruistic behaviour of spermatozoa in an eutherian mammal. Spermatozoa of the common wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, displayed a unique morphological transformation resulting in cooperation in distinctive aggregations or 'trains' of hundreds or thousands of cells, which significantly increased sperm progressive motility. Eventual dispersal of sperm trains was associated with most of the spermatozoa undergoing a premature acrosome reaction. Cells undergoing an acrosome reaction in aggregations remote from the egg are altruistic in that they help sperm transport to the egg but compromise their own fertilizing ability. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 207 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 7 | 3% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | <1% |
| Serbia | 2 | <1% |
| Malaysia | 1 | <1% |
| Ecuador | 1 | <1% |
| Germany | 1 | <1% |
| Mexico | 1 | <1% |
| Hungary | 1 | <1% |
| Japan | 1 | <1% |
| Other | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 189 | 91% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 41 | 20% |
| Researcher | 40 | 19% |
| Student > Bachelor | 33 | 16% |
| Student > Master | 16 | 8% |
| Professor | 13 | 6% |
| Other | 42 | 20% |
| Unknown | 22 | 11% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 112 | 54% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 13 | 6% |
| Psychology | 8 | 4% |
| Neuroscience | 7 | 3% |
| Physics and Astronomy | 7 | 3% |
| Other | 30 | 14% |
| Unknown | 30 | 14% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 101. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 April 2024.
All research outputs
#400,255
of 24,662,675 outputs
Outputs from Nature
#19,753
of 95,575 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#255
of 46,454 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature
#12
of 338 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,662,675 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 95,575 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 101.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 46,454 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 338 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.