Can sperm reproduce?
If you left an amount of sperm in a sterile jar in the right conditions with a nutrient supply, could they reproduce?
Dumb question I know but I was just reading something on a website and this query just jumped into my mind.
Answers:
It's not nearly as dumb as most of the questions I read. No, they can't reproduce because they only contain 1/2 of the DNA of the parent organism.
No
No, Sperm cannot reproduce themselves. Only the testes can make sperm. Sperm are haploid cells that have only enough energy to last about 2-5 days.
No. Sperm itself does not undergo any more replication. The cells that split into sperm are called protosperm. There are no protosperm in a sample as you described.
Of course not. You need the right conditions for it to fuse it with the female ova.
Im not sure.
asexually through meiosis
Not dumb at all, unlike some of the answers :P
First of all, IF they would reproduce (say, divide in an asexual way) that would occur by MITOSIS and not meiosis. Sperm cells are haploid, they don't have the two sets of chromosomes necessary for meiosis. Halve a sperm's chromosome number: you'll have two completely defective daughter (should I say son? ;) ) cells missing half the genetic material they'd need to live.
Back to the original question, I think IN THEORY sperm cells should be capable of reproduction. Just a moment ago I found an article that states sperm are capable of protein synthesis. I don't have the nerves to read the whole article, but skimming through the abstract and the first couple of paragraphs I have no reason not to believe the authors. If a cell can make proteins (among them enzymes), that's a very good first step to building up fully grown and working daughter cells - provided that the cell can divide at all.
Sperm also have centrioles, which play a crucial role in animal cell division.
However, during their development, sperm cells lose most of their cytoplasm, together with all ingredients not needed for swimming and fertilisation. A mature sperm cell contains hardly more than a nucleus, an enzyme-filled acrosome ready to digest its way through the outer covering of an egg cell, a few mitochondria to provide its energy and a tail to drive it through the female reproductive tract.
In truth I'd have to know MUCH more about the structures in sperm and cells in general, and about sperm protein synthesis - what proteins are made and what are inhibited, etc - to provide you a good and well-supported answer. So I'd remain by the cautious guess that sperm seem to have the apparatus for division (and haploid cells CAN divide by mitosis, plants like ferns or mosses use alternating generations, one of which is haploid and grows out of one single haploid cell), but may be too specialised (by losing most cytoplasm, the Golgi apparatus etc or by inhibiting the expression of most genes or in whatever other way I can't think of now) to carry out mitosis in practice.
Asexual Meiosis is an oxymoron.
Sperm lack many of the components found in somatic cells and are not capable of mitosis.
Sperm are produced by specialized cells through the process of spermatogenesis. Also, they are haploid and the lack of half a genome probably contributes to their inability to reproduce. Likewise, ova do not reproduce by mitosis, but are created by meisosis from specialized cells in the process of oogenesis.
I don't know of anyone that has shown this experimentally. I presume that if it were possible, sperm banks would have figured it out long ago to save an donor fees.
But go ahead, keep a jar on the nightstand. maybe you'll "get lucky".
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Dumb question I know but I was just reading something on a website and this query just jumped into my mind.
Answers:
It's not nearly as dumb as most of the questions I read. No, they can't reproduce because they only contain 1/2 of the DNA of the parent organism.
No
No, Sperm cannot reproduce themselves. Only the testes can make sperm. Sperm are haploid cells that have only enough energy to last about 2-5 days.
No. Sperm itself does not undergo any more replication. The cells that split into sperm are called protosperm. There are no protosperm in a sample as you described.
Of course not. You need the right conditions for it to fuse it with the female ova.
Im not sure.
asexually through meiosis
Not dumb at all, unlike some of the answers :P
First of all, IF they would reproduce (say, divide in an asexual way) that would occur by MITOSIS and not meiosis. Sperm cells are haploid, they don't have the two sets of chromosomes necessary for meiosis. Halve a sperm's chromosome number: you'll have two completely defective daughter (should I say son? ;) ) cells missing half the genetic material they'd need to live.
Back to the original question, I think IN THEORY sperm cells should be capable of reproduction. Just a moment ago I found an article that states sperm are capable of protein synthesis. I don't have the nerves to read the whole article, but skimming through the abstract and the first couple of paragraphs I have no reason not to believe the authors. If a cell can make proteins (among them enzymes), that's a very good first step to building up fully grown and working daughter cells - provided that the cell can divide at all.
Sperm also have centrioles, which play a crucial role in animal cell division.
However, during their development, sperm cells lose most of their cytoplasm, together with all ingredients not needed for swimming and fertilisation. A mature sperm cell contains hardly more than a nucleus, an enzyme-filled acrosome ready to digest its way through the outer covering of an egg cell, a few mitochondria to provide its energy and a tail to drive it through the female reproductive tract.
In truth I'd have to know MUCH more about the structures in sperm and cells in general, and about sperm protein synthesis - what proteins are made and what are inhibited, etc - to provide you a good and well-supported answer. So I'd remain by the cautious guess that sperm seem to have the apparatus for division (and haploid cells CAN divide by mitosis, plants like ferns or mosses use alternating generations, one of which is haploid and grows out of one single haploid cell), but may be too specialised (by losing most cytoplasm, the Golgi apparatus etc or by inhibiting the expression of most genes or in whatever other way I can't think of now) to carry out mitosis in practice.
Asexual Meiosis is an oxymoron.
Sperm lack many of the components found in somatic cells and are not capable of mitosis.
Sperm are produced by specialized cells through the process of spermatogenesis. Also, they are haploid and the lack of half a genome probably contributes to their inability to reproduce. Likewise, ova do not reproduce by mitosis, but are created by meisosis from specialized cells in the process of oogenesis.
I don't know of anyone that has shown this experimentally. I presume that if it were possible, sperm banks would have figured it out long ago to save an donor fees.
But go ahead, keep a jar on the nightstand. maybe you'll "get lucky".
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