In this video, we're going to be talking about the anatomy of the testes. Now the testes are paired organs that are enclosed within the scrotum, and these, of course, are the primary sex organs for males or the gonads for males and they're going to be producing the male reproductive cells which, of course, are sperm.
So within each testis, there are 4 major regions that we need to know and these will basically just be a series of tubes and ducts that sperm are going to be moving through. So first up are the seminiferous tubules. These are tightly coiled tubules. They are highly, highly convoluted. You can see those here in purple, and this is where sperm are actually being produced. And I always remember that because to me, seminiferous just sounds kind of like semen, and when I think of semen, I think of sperm. So that's how I kind of keep in my head that this is the location where sperm are actually being created. And so sperm are going to be produced here, but they're not going to mature here.
So the sperm are going to immediately begin to move out, so the immature sperm are going to go out of these purple seminiferous tubules and they're going to enter the straight tubules. And you can see those here in green and they are literally just much more straight and much less convoluted compared to those seminiferous tubules. Those straight tubules will convey sperm to the rete testis. So that is our next structure. And so you can see those right here, and this is just a tubular network on the posterior side of the testis that sperm are going to be passing through as well.
The rete testis will convey sperm to the efferent ductule. Alright. So you can see that efferent ductule right there. And, of course, efferent always means exit. Right? So this is the exit duct for sperm that are going to the epididymis, which is the structure right outside of the testis right here. Alright. And that will be the location where sperm are going to be maturing. I know that this is a whole bunch of just tubes and ducts, but to help you remember the journey that sperm are going to be taking, we have a little memory tool here. So you can think of the sentence 'speedy sperm rush excitedly', where the first letter of each of those words will match up to the first letter of the anatomy in the order that sperm move through. So they're going to begin with those seminiferous tubules, enter the straight tubules, enter the rete testis, and then enter that efferent ductule which will convey them to the epididymis.
Alright, so that is the anatomy of the testes and I'll see you guys in our next video. Bye bye.