Identification of Honey Bee Sperm Structures Following the use of Various Staining Techniques.

Introduction: Bees are currently artificially inseminated on a large scale for breeding and research purposes. The sperm of bees has a complex and varied structure, and determination of specific morphological defects in it is very difficult. Its comprehensive analysis by inspecting morphology and morphometry is an important tool for improving honey bee lines. The staining technique should interfere with the cells as little as possible while clearly showing the boundaries of the head and other elements. In this study, a comparative analysis of the morphometry of sperm was performed with various techniques for staining drone semen.

Material and methods: Semen was collected from 150 sexually mature Buckfast bee drones by artificially everting the copulatory organ. The morphology and morphometry of the sperm were assessed on slides prepared by three staining methods according to the protocols described online, using the Sperm Class Analyzer system. The lengths of the acrosome, nucleus, head in total, midpiece, tail without midpiece, tail with midpiece, and entire sperm were measured.

Results: The most details of the drone sperm structure could be seen when stained with the eosin-nigrosin complex. This method made it possible to identify all structures and revealed the uneven distribution of sperm proteins in different parts of the tail. With the Sperm Stain method fewer details of the sperm structure were recognisable, and the fewest were with SpermBlue.

Conclusion: The staining method, and thus the chemical reagents used, affect the dimensions of drone sperm. Given the great research potential of modified spermatozoa of insects, a standard for slide preparation for the evaluation of morphological and morphometric semen parameters should be established, as this would facilitate result comparison between laboratories and increase the value of morphological analysis of sperm for predicting and assessing fertility.