-
Asked by aayb279 to Cheryl, Christina, Daniel, George, Ivy on 20 Jan 2017.
Question: after fertilization where do the remaining sperms go
- Keywords:
-
Daniel Mbuthia answered on 20 Jan 2017:
Fertilization in humans occur when there is a union of the sperm and the ovum, usually, this happens in the Fallopian tube. The sperms produce an enzyme which allows it to burrow into the outer jelly membrane of the ovum. Once the sperm enters the ovum, the ovum produces an enzyme that makes its outer membrane impermeable by other sperms. Therefore to answer your question: There are about 200 million sperms produced in a single ejaculation. Most of the sperms are killed by the acidic fluids inside the vagina, others are trapped inside the mucus membrane while the rest are attacked and destroyed by the white blood cells. As few as 200 make it to the fallopian tube. Only one sperm fertilizes the egg. The rest are destroyed by the immune system.
-
Cheryl Andisi answered on 21 Jan 2017:
@aayb279,
@Dan has given you a very comprehensive answer that i do not think I can add any further details to. Just to mention that this kind of fertilisation and anatomical adaptation for the same is what happens in some of the higher animals and is referred to as internal fertilisation. In some organisms, there is what we call external fertilisation where the eggs are laid and the sperm shed on them outside of the bodies of the males and females. In these cases, there are usually many eggs and many sperms but only one sperm per egg. In these cases, the changes described by Dan on the fertilised egg still happen to prevent multiple sperm entering one egg. The sperms that do not find an egg to fetilise die off. In some other instances, multiple sperms can still enter one egg, but the resulting embryos are destroyed before maturity
Comments