Development+Article+EAT

Sperm Article (1) What is a germ cell? (male germ cell and female germ cell) (2) Compare the size of a sperm to an egg. Insert a picture here comparing the sizes.
 * Male germ cell is very compact and do not have the normal cell protein making ability. They are very fast moving, have chubby heads and a tapering tail.
 * Female germ cell
 * Sperm is the smalled cell in the the body. A mature sperm has the span of 5 microns.
 * The egg is one of the largest single cell in the body. the egg is about 30 times the width of sperm... the egg is even big enough to be seen.



(3) Compare the number of eggs produced by human females to the number sperm produced by human males. (4) Describe semen. What is the purpose of semen? (5) What can be wrong with sperm? What percentage of sperm are usually normal? (6) Where do sperm develop? Why could a fever disrupt sperm production for months? (7) Describe in detail the three parts of a sperm cell.
 * Males are able to produce sperm from the time of puberty on. Each testicle is able to make about 4 million new sperm an hour. There are roughly 12 trillion sperm produced in a life time by a male.
 * Females are born with all the eggs that they will ever have, which is about one million... and of that one million only 500 will have a chance of being fertilized.
 * It is a mix of sugar, citric acid, and other ingredients that fuel the sperm cells. It is used to fuel the sperm cells and prepare them for the long journey ahead.
 * Sperm can have pinshaped head, two heads, lack tells, and 1/3 cant even move at all. A lucky man will have 15 % of his sperm perfectly normal... and be able to fertilize an egg.
 * The sperm needs to be created at a temperature that is 2 degrees below the normal body temperature (this is why the testes hang off of the body.) The sperm develops in the testies. If the man has a fever or has his testies in warm temperatures the sperm is unable to develop.
 * The sperm has a head that is made up of 23 chromosomes (half of the chromosomes used for DNA.) At the tip of the head is the acrosome, which is a sac of enzymes that help to penetrate the egg. After the head is the midpiece which is filled with mitochondria. Below the midpiece is the tail, which is a group of 11 filaments that move the sperm forward.



(8) How do the sperm react to being in the female reproductive tract? How do they know where to go? (9) How is the egg only fertilized by one sperm?
 * When they enter the female reproductive tract chemical signals from the vaginal and cervical mucus push the sperm to life. They start swimming straight ahead at first or they may remain stationary in the cervical mucus for a few days. Some sperm cross the cervix and enter the uterus. The egg leaves the ovarian follicle and stays in the fallopian tube, this releases a signal and the sperm is signaled where to go.
 * Once the sperm penetrates the egg a chemical is released. No other sperm can penetrate the egg once this chemical is released.