A putative model attempting to depict different levels of genomic organization that may be associated with specific acquired spermatozoal defects. The sperm nucleus is broken down sequentially until the raw DNA. In human spermatozoa it is proposed that up to 15% of histone complexed DNA may remain after spermiogenesis while the remainder is all protamine complexed. Modified from Ward and Coffey in Biology of Reproduction 1991 Apr;44(4):569–574, © The Society for the Study of Reproduction.
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