Sperm cooperates to fertilize an egg

Recent studies published this week on Nature journal demonstrated that sperm can link up with other cells in order to swim faster and successfully reach the egg. Surprisingly, scientists from Harvard University noted that sperm form clusters only with cells of relatives.

They labelled sperm with fluorescent probe and published fantastic pictures in which clusters were colored with only one color. This means that cluster was formed by sperm derived from one male. From a biological point, in species in which female copulates with several males before getting pregnant sperm helps itself to promote mate generation. It seemed that some genetic information could help on this process. Sperm recognizes its relatives through a sort of fingerprint, it’s not only for spatial opportunity that sperm link with its similar that presumably enters and are in the reproductive tract at the same moment. Next step will be to understand which is the genetic basis undergone to this interesting process and evaluate if the same behavior could be identified also in human beings, keeping in mind of course that female usually doesn’t copulate with several males to get pregnant. Indeed, some fertilization treatment could be created on the basis of this study.