SICB 2022: Let’s Chat about Lizard Sperm!

Mr. Wayne Wang from Tulane University.

It’s no surprise that reproductive traits are important for the survival and fitness of species- particularly in the face of changing environments. What I learned from Mr. Wayne Wang’s talk at SICB 2022, though, was that male fertility is often more heat-sensitive than female fertility and even adult thermal tolerance! Wayne is a 3^rd year Ph.D. student at Tulane University under Dr. Alex Gunderson and at SICB this year, he discussed his preliminary results on Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei) sperm thermal tolerance and mobility.

In some species, the temperature associated with infertility in males is often a better determinant of population distribution than adult thermal tolerance. Additionally, sperm are under strong selection because only few make the journey to fertilize an egg (which means that they are also one of the most highly diverse cell types). Mr. Wang noticed that in the literature, there is a large focus on sperm morphology, rather than physiological traits like mobility or speed. In his talk, he sought to 1) test thermal tolerance of sperm, 2) test repeatability of thermal tolerance, and 3) identify any correlations between sperm and adult thermal tolerance in A. sagrei. He began by rounding up some lizards and copulating them until they ejaculated sperm, which he states is a lot easier process than one might imagine. Sperm were diluted and incubated at various temperatures until videos were recorded to measure sperm motility.

Mr. Wang found that A. sagrei sperm motility did not differ much between 33°C and 41°C; however, at approximately 43°C, there is a steady decline where approaching 48-50°C, none survive. In fact, 50% of sperm stop moving at about 43°C. This experiment was repeated with the same group of lizards during a second week following a seven-day acclimation period. Similar patterns were observed and during week 2, more individuals had a higher percentage of sperm motility. Lastly, no correlations between sperm and adult thermal tolerance were identified–Mr. Wang speculates that this might be because these traits are not linked or his sample size did not allow for enough resolution.

Be sure to check out Wayne Wang’s awesome talk here!