Cc.
X-ray diffraction and electron microscope studies on
silver salmon spermatozoa
In the X-ray diffraction studies of silver salmon sperma-
tozoan tails, orientation of tails in a parallel configuration
was done by (1) quick-freezing a flowing suspension of tails
both on glass plates and in capillaries and (2) by orientation
in an electric field.
In X-ray diffraction work with undried tail preparations,
the use of antibiotics
(penicillin G, streptomycin sulfate)
resulted in marked agglutination effects, thus the steps for
preparing pure suspensions of tails could not be accomplished.
The use of benzene and toluene as antibiotics gave similar
results.
Osmic tetroxide at a concentration of .05 per cent
has been tried with some success.
Sufficient purified tail
fibril material has not been obtained for extraction of
actomyosin.
As a test for survival in cold storage, the spermatozoa
were mixed with 10 per cent glycerol, cooled slowly to -5°C,
then cooled rapidly to -79°C.
The spermatozoa were found to
be motile after thawing.
During the summer of 1953, electron microscope studies
on silver salmon spermatozoa were made.
An ultramicrotome
and an improved RCA-EMU-type electron microscope provided by