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Microspores are land plant spores that develop into male gametophytes, whereas megaspores develop into female gametophytes. [1] The male gametophyte gives rise to sperm cells, which are used for fertilization of an egg cell to form a zygote .
Exosporic gametophytes can either be bisexual, capable of producing both sperm and eggs in the same thallus , or specialized into separate male and female organisms (dioicous). In heterosporous vascular plants (plants that produce both microspores and megaspores), the gametophytes develop endosporically (within the spore wall).
The pollen grains, which are the male gametophytes, are reduced to only a few cells (just three cells in many cases). Here the notion of two generations is less obvious; as Bateman & Dimichele say "sporophyte and gametophyte effectively function as a single organism". [8] The alternative term 'alternation of phases' may then be more appropriate ...
The tops of the gametophytes (2) can be discerned as well. Inset shows the surrounding, black poplars growing on sandy loam on the bank of a kolk , with the detail area marked. In biology , a spore is a unit of sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in ...
Early land plants had sporophytes that produced identical spores (isosporous or homosporous) but the ancestors of the gymnosperms evolved complex heterosporous life cycles in which the spores producing male and female gametophytes were of different sizes, the female megaspores tending to be larger, and fewer in number, than the male microspores ...
In exosporic species, the smaller spores germinate into free-living male gametophytes and the larger spores germinate into free-living female gametophytes. In endosporic species, the gametophytes of both sexes are very highly reduced and contained within the spore wall. The microspores of both exosporic and endosporic species are free-sporing ...
A microsporangium (pl. microsporangia) is a sporangium that produces microspores that give rise to male gametophytes when they germinate. Microsporangia occur in all vascular plants that have heterosporic life cycles, such as seed plants, spike mosses and the aquatic fern genus Azolla.
Microgametogenesis is the process in plant reproduction where a microgametophyte develops in a pollen grain to the three-celled stage of its development. In flowering plants it occurs with a microspore mother cell inside the anther of the plant.