RADIATION ANALYSIS OF THE DURATION OF MEIOTIC PHASES IN THE SPERMATOGENESIS OF THE MONKEY (MACACA MULATTA)

Abstract

A study was made of the relative period of various developmental stages of spermatogonia of the monkey. Data are tabulated on the analysls of 1542 seminal canals from which the relative duration of each meiotic stage can be calculated. The change in achromatid arrangement as revealed by histological staining techniques was used as a measure of determining the stages of spermatogenesis After irradiating 10 monkeys with a 100 r dose of x-rays, analyses were carried out on embryonic epithellum cells irradiation. Castration was also performed on a group of 15 monkeys each 24 hours from the first day to the 20th day after irradiation. Type B (B/sub 1/, B/sub 2/, and B/sub 3/) spermagonia could not be observed 10 hours after irradiation. These cells were the most radiosensitive for a 100 r irradiation. The duration of the meiosis as a whole was found to be 17 days or 408 hours, as shown by the disappearance of the occurrence of the later stages of melosis in stained testicular sections. It was determined that multiplication of spermatogonia (from As to spermatocytes of the first order) lasts for 905 hours, meiosis lasts 408 hours and the stage of spermatid development lasts 366 hours.more » The duration of the whole period of spermatogenesis is 1682 hours or about 70 days. (TTT)« less