Figure 7

Comparison of spermatid differentiation of control and melav2 RNAi treated M. lignano by TEM. (A, B) In the control animals (A), the nucleus of a spermatid was never tightly condensed until quite a late stage of spermiogenesis, while in the melav2 RNAi treated animals (B), some spermatids started to show a condensed nucleus precociously (B, arrow). (C, D) In the control animals (C), mature sperm had an elongated morphology and the nucleus was condensed into the train-shape, while in the melav2 RNAi treated animals (D), the train-shaped nuclei were never observed, and the cells often had large vacuoles (vac). Some cell components were also observed outside of the cells (D, asterisk), suggesting cells were dying by necrosis. st, spermatid; ast, aberrant spermatid; mi, mitochondria; nu, nuclei. Scale bars: 2 μm.