Coordinators' Note

The research group Morphophysiology and Biochemistry of Spermatozoa at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (Iztapalapa Unit, UAM-I) as well as the members of the Animal Reproduction Research Laboratory (LIRA) at the Autonomous University of Oaxaca Benito Juárez began the Statewide Reproduction Seminars in 2010, aiming to open a space in which the students from both groups could show their research advances and providing a forum of critic thought that allowed them to express freely, so as to raise questions from the most basic level and gain firm knowledge from there on. This forum has grown year after year, adding workshops that allow the students to standardize the techniques they use in the lab, and to make their first incursions as handlers. The workshops have tackled a wide range of practical field subjects, from artificial insemination and the transfer of embryos in sheep and goats, to the evaluation and freezing of semen at the lab.
The seminars have also involved the participation of members from the research group Ecophysiology of Vertebrate Reproduction and the academic body  of Fertilization of Mammals, both from UAM-I, of Dr. Ávalos from the Autonomous Metropolitan University (Xochimilco Unit), and of Dr. Arturo Gómez, from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico; and in 2017, the signing of an agreement of academic collaboration between the research group Biotechnology Applied to the Veterinary (UABJO), the Laboratory of Morphophysiology and Biochemistry of the Spermatozoon (UAM-I), the Consortium of Spermatozoon Physiology of the Biotechnology Institute (UNAM), the Biology Laboratory of the Reproduction of the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the Autonomous University of Puebla, and the Biology of Animal Reproduction Postgraduate Institute at the UAM-I.
For most people, the spermatozoon is just “the other cell participating in reproduction”; for us it’s a unique cell, with fascinating characteristics that captures our attention and keeps us eternally amazed. So, we hope this book will allow the reader to consider some of the contributions made on this subject from Mexico, aiming to further what we know about this cell.

Edith Arenas Ríos (UAM)
Gisela Fuentes Mascorro (UABJO)
July, 2018