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Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown spiral-shaped nanostructure in human sperm tails.
Credit: University of Gothenburg

Scientists have spent decades studying the extraordinary abilities and anatomy of human sperm, so an international team of researchers was surprised to discover a mysterious, spiral-shaped nanostructure in the tails of sperm.

The newfound spiral may give sperm tails a boost, the scientists said.

Sperm need a highly effective tail so they can swim as fast as possible toward the egg and attempt to fertilize it. Each sperm tail has thousands of building blocks, the most important of which are called tubulins, the researchers said. These tubulins form long tubes known as microtubules in the sperm's tail.

These microtubules are attached to thousands of motor proteins (proteins that can move) that pull and bend the microtubules, allowing the sperm to swim.

"It's actually quite incredible that it can work," study senior researcher Johanna Höög, a researcher in the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, said in a statement. "The movement of thousands of motor proteins has to be coordinated in the minutest of detail in order for the sperm to be able to swim."

https://www.livescience.com/61826-newfound-spiral-...