Research report 2012 - Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar

Sperm cannot smell - the end of the "Lily of the Valley phenomenon" in sperm research?

Authors
Brenker, Christoph; Müller, Astrid; Hartmann, Stefan; Strünker, Timo
Departments
Abteilung Molekulare Neurosensorik
Summary
Almost 10 years ago, the "Lily of the Valley phenomenon" was born: in the oviduct, sperm navigate - like swimming olfactory neurons - along an “odorant trail” laid by the egg. Scientists from the caesar research center in Bonn now discovered that sperm do not function like olfactory neurons. This finding casts doubts on the hypothesis that odorants orchestrate fertilization.

For the full text, see the German version.

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