Respiratory Quotients of Bovine Spermatozoa

Summary. The oxygen consumption of sixteen samples of ejaculated bovine spermatozoa in diluted semen was more rapid in the presence of the respired carbon dioxide than it was for similar spermatozoa respiring in the presence of alkali to absorb the evolved carbon dioxide. Thus, respiratory quotients for seminal spermatozoa calculated from oxygen consumptions obtained by the direct method of Warburg, in the absence of respired carbon dioxide, are in error, being larger than is characteristic of the substrate oxidized. The oxygen consumption of seventeen samples of ejaculated bovine spermatozoa washed free from seminal plasma was not influenced to the same degree by the absence of the respired carbon dioxide. However, the influence was sufficient to question the accuracy of the direct method of Warburg for measuring respiratory quotients for bovine spermatozoa.