acroplaxome

English

Etymology

According to the authors of its first attestation, from acro- +‎ Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat”) +‎ -some, but synonymous πλάξ (pláx) fits better.

Noun

acroplaxome (plural acroplaxomes)

1. A structure that lies between the membranes of the acrosome and nucleus of a spermatozoon.
   • 2003 November, Abraham L. Kierszenbaum, “Acroplaxome, an F-Actin–Keratin-containing Plate, Anchors the Acrosome to the Nucleus during Shaping of the Spermatid Head”, in Molecular Biology of the Cell, volume 14, page 4628:

     Herein, we report the structural characterization of a plate present in the subacrosomal space and linking the developing acrosome to the spermatid nucleus. This plate, which we designate acroplaxome (from the Greek words akros, topmost; platys, flat; sõma, body), consists of F-actin and Sak57 and is bordered by a marginal ring.

   • 2015 December 24, “TMF/ARA160 Governs the Dynamic Spatial Orientation of the Golgi Apparatus during Sperm Development”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     Concomitantly, pro-acrosomal vesicles derived from the TMF -/- Golgi lacked targeting properties and did not tether to the spermatid nuclear membrane thereby failing to form the acrosome anchoring scaffold, the acroplaxome, around the cell-nucleus.

   • 2018, C. Yan Cheng, Spermatogenesis: Biology and Clinical Implications:

     Acrosome development is accomplished by F-actin–rich structures present in the subacrosomal space; these structures have been termed the acroplaxome (an actin-based scaffold that anchors the acrosome to the nuclear membrane) and the marginal ring (an actin-rich structure at the leading edge of the spreading acrosome).