Figure 3.

No correlation of C. elegans male and hermaphrodite sperm size across strains. (A) Hermaphrodite sperm size across 12 strains. Strains with smallest (LSJ1) to largest (JU393) male sperm are arranged from left to right. Effect of strain genotype and sex on C. elegans sperm size (ANOVA, effect sex: F_1,3207 = 6267.55, P < 0.0001; effect strain: F_{11, 3207} = 107.14, P < 0.0001; interaction sex × strain: F_{11, 3207} = 50.90, P < 0.0001). For each strain, 87–152 hermaphrodite spermatids from 7 to 13 individuals were measured (male sperm size data are the same as shown in Figure 1). (B) Absence of significant correlation between male and hermaphrodite sperm size across 12 strains, inferred from least-squares regression of strain mean values (F_{1, 11} = 1.38, R² = 0.11, P = 0.27). (C) No correlation between average hermaphrodite sperm size and sperm number across eight strains (F_{1, 7} = 0.59, R² = 0.10, P = 0.43). Hermaphrodite self-sperm number were established by measuring all sperm contained within a single spermatheca of 12–31 individuals per strain.