Sperm ultrastructure of Xylotechus rusticus and their changes after irradiation

The changes in sperm ultrastructure of male Xylotechus rusticus irradiated by γ-rays on larval, pupal and imaginal stage had been studied. The sperm of male Xylotechus rusticus composed of head and tail. The head with no acrosome, which is completely filled with homogeneous compact chromatin comprises nucleus. The tail consists of an axoneme with the 9 + 9 + 2 microtubule, as well as a pair of mitochondrial derivatives of nearly equal cross sectional size. Sperms in male sperraary from irradiated samples have conglutination of two or more sperms when the insects were treated at the stage of adult, larvae and pupae. At the applied dose of 80Gy to adult and larvae, the conglutination of two sperms is predominant in irradiated sperm bundles and the level of irradiation damage is observed identically. However, the irradiation damage was slightly higher than that of imaginal and larval stage when the same dosage was applied to pupae, which shows that the conglutination of much more sperms is predominant in sperms bundle, the scattered arrangement of organelles in spermary, arm changes of morphology in accessory, bodies and mitochondrial derivatives are also occurred. The male sperms (120Gy) swelled up clearly and nuclear diameter is 10 times of natural sperms, the congtutination of much more sperms is abundant and changes of arrangement of organelles in spermary is also occurred. The degree of irradiation damage at dose of 120Gy is obviously serious than that of 80Gy. (authors)