Abstract
Spermatogenesis, fertilizing capacity, and motility of the sperm of homeothermic species are strongly temperature dependent. Chicken sperm survive temperatures of -15° C and can still move at 6° C, but they are irreversibly damaged by heating to 50° C for more than two minutes. They use oxygen most rapidly at 40.8° C, and are damaged least by temperatures of 20° C (Winberg, 1941). Fertilized rabbit ova remain capable of development for up to 150 h at 10° (Chang, 1947). Polge et al. (1949) demonstrated that spermatozoa can be cooled to -79° C and thawed again without losing their capacity for fertilization. Similarly, ovarian tissue can be re-implanted successfully after several days of cooling to -79° C (p. 669).
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© 1973 Springer-Verlag, Berlin · Heidelberg
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Precht, H., Christophersen, J., Hensel, H., Larcher, W. (1973). Temperature and Development. In: Temperature and Life. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65708-5_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65708-5_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-65710-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-65708-5
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