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Nature 415, 963 (28 February 2002) | doi:10.1038/415963a

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Human spermatozoa: The future of sex

R. John Aitken1 & Jennifer A. Marshall Graves2

The desperate plight of the human spermatozoon is clearly reflected by the poor fecundity of our species. Human spermatozoa stand apart from the gametes of virtually all other mammals in the paucity of their phenotype, the inadequacy of their function, and the sensitivity to fragmentation of their mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.