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Diagram showing the alternation of generations between a diploid sporophyte (bottom) and a haploid gametophyte (top) A sporophyte (/ ˈ s p ɔːr. ə ˌ f aɪ t /) is the diploid multicellular stage in the life cycle of a plant or alga which produces asexual spores. This stage alternates with a multicellular haploid gametophyte phase.
In liverworts, mosses and hornworts, the dominant form is the haploid gametophyte. The diploid sporophyte is not capable of an independent existence, gaining most of its nutrition from the parent gametophyte, and having no chlorophyll when mature. [21] Sporophyte of Lomaria discolor, a fern ; Dominant sporophyte (sporophytic).
The mature sporophyte produces spores by meiosis, sometimes referred to as reduction division because the chromosome pairs are separated once again to form single sets. In mosses and liverworts, the gametophyte is relatively large, and the sporophyte is a much smaller structure that is never separated from the gametophyte.
Heterospory stops self-fertilization from occurring in a gametophyte, but does not stop two gametophytes that originated from the same sporophyte from mating. [8] This specific type of self-fertilization is termed as sporophytic selfing, and in extant plants it occurs most commonly among angiosperms .
The sporophyte lacks an apical meristem, an auxin-sensitive point of divergence with other land plants some time in the Late Silurian/Early Devonian. [17] [18] When the sporophyte is mature, it has a multicellular outer layer, a central rod-like columella running up the center, and a layer of tissue in between that produces spores and pseudo ...
Two gametes fuse to form a zygote, which develops into a new sporophyte. This cycle is known as alternation of generations . The spores of seed plants are produced internally, and the megaspores (formed within the ovules) and the microspores are involved in the formation of more complex structures that form the dispersal units, the seeds and ...
In the bryophytes the sporophyte remains dependent on the gametophyte, while in all other embryophytes the sporophyte generation is dominant and capable of independent existence. Embryophytes also differ from algae by having metamers. Metamers are repeated units of development, in which each unit derives from a single cell, but the resulting ...
Pollen itself is not the male gamete. [4] It is a gametophyte, something that could be considered an entire organism, which then produces the male gamete.Each pollen grain contains vegetative (non-reproductive) cells (only a single cell in most flowering plants but several in other seed plants) and a generative (reproductive) cell.