Their study supported many previous studies on the extraction of sperm from snakes. Their primary focus was on investigating the artificial insemination of females with said extracted sperm, a technique which has had few studies and even fewer positive outcomes. They included 4 species of snakes:
Corn Snakes (Pantherophis guttatus)
False Water Cobras (Hydrodynastes gigas)
Amazon Tree Boas (Corallus hortulanus)
Madagascar Tree Boas (Sanzinia madagascariensis).
They had 1 male and 1 female of each, except for the Corn Snakes, of which they had 3 females. The method they used involved brumation for the species which require a "wintering" period to enter breeding modes (Corn Snakes and False Water Cobras), an ultrasound for verification of vitellogenic follicles in the females, an endoscope for access into the females' reproductive systems, and a catheter on a syringe for the deposition of the collected semen.
Figure 5. Ultrasonography of False Water Cobras (H. gigas) ovaries revealing vitellogenic follicles.
As they state, "One-fifth of all existing reptilian species are currently facing extinction." Thus, they hope that this study will jump start further investigations into artificial inseminations and other methods which could help combat this alarming loss in biodiversity. Their study resulted in 2 of the Corn Snakes and the Amazon Tree Boa producing healthy young. Both Corn Snakes laid eggs 2 months after the artificial insemination, one with 14 eggs and the other with 16, and all of the eggs hatched after 2 months of incubation. The Boa gave birth 4 months after the artificial insemination to 2 healthy young and 5 unfertilized (called slugs).
This study was preliminary for future investigations. Notable upcoming investigations should focus on the differences at the species level in what would make artificial insemination successful. Additionally, there is yet to be a described method for storage of reptilian sperm for future use.
Article Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1557506318300636
4 comments:
Did they mention why they chose these 4 species for the research?
They did not go into much detail into the reasonings for why they used the species that they did, but it appeared to me to be that those involved had access to these species as pets. For this research, their main goal was to demonstrate that it could be done, with the intention of this experiment to spur future research.
Is there a specific reason they wanted to inseminate these specific snakes, other than they wanted to see if they produced healthy offspring, or that it could be done in the first place? Did the researchers find that the kind of semen used had an affect on the well being of the offspring? I think more information on the background of the research would be beneficial.
Really the only background that they mentioned was a desire for this research to serve as a "proof of concept" for future studies.
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