Reproductive cycle of Fungi
Aijaz Parpia 2nd block 5/6/16
What is a Fungi?
A group of Eukaryotic single-celled or multi-cellular organism that live by decomposing and absorbing the organic material in which they grow.
Examples
- Sac Fungi
- Microsporidia
- Zygomycota
- Mushroom
- Mold
How do they reproduce ?
Fungi reproduce in two ways, asexually and sexually.
In both sexual and asexual reproduction, fungi produce spores that disperse from the parent organism by either floating on the wind or hitching a ride on an animal. Both have mitosis.
TYPES
Asexually
Fungi reproduce asexually by fragmentation, budding, or producing spores.
- Mycelial fragmentation occurs when a fungal mycelium separates into pieces with each component growing into a separate mycelium.( Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus)
- Somatic cells in yeast form buds. During budding (a type of cytokinesis), a bulge forms on the side of the cell, the nucleus divides mitotically, and the bud ultimately detaches itself from the mother cell.(somatic cells is Somatic cells are all cells in the body)
- formation of asexual spores, which are produced by one parent only (through mitosis) and are genetically identical to that parent .
Source: Boundless. “Fungi Reproduction.” Boundless Biology. Boundless, 13 Apr. 2016. Retrieved 09 May. 2016
Sexually
In fungi, sexual reproduction often occurs in response to adverse environmental conditions. There are three stages:
Plasmogamy
- During plasmogamy (literally, "marriage or union of cytoplasm"), two haploid cells fuse, leading to a dikaryotic stage where two haploid nuclei coexist in a single cell.
- Karyogamy ("nuclear marriage"), the haploid nuclei fuse to form a diploid zygote nucleus.
- Meiosis takes place in the gametangia (singular, gametangium) organs, in which gametes of different mating types are generated.