News tagged with spores
'Animal embryo' fossils are actually microbes (Update)
Tiny fossils that scientists have thought for decades were the embryos of the earliest animals ever found have turned out to be the remains of much simpler microbial organisms.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Fossilized pollen reveals climate history of northern Antarctica
A painstaking examination of the first direct and detailed climate record from the continental shelves surrounding Antarctica reveals that the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed in a tundra landscape ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 27, 2011 |
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Self or non-self: Social amoeba rely on genetic 'lock and key' to identify kin
The ability to identify self and non-self enables cells in more sophisticated animals to ward off invading infections, but it is critical to even simpler organisms such as the social amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum.
Jun 23, 2011 |
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Selaginella genome adds piece to plant evolutionary puzzle
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Purdue University-led sequencing of the Selaginella moellendorffii (spikemoss) genome - the first for a non-seed vascular plant - is expected to give scientists a better understanding of how ...
May 05, 2011 |
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New parasitic fungi found that turn ants into zombies
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the US and UK have discovered four new species of parasitic fungi in the Brazilian rainforests. The fungi attack four distinct species of ants and release mind-altering chemicals ...
Mar 04, 2011 |
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Like humans, amoebae pack a lunch before they travel
(PhysOrg.com) -- Some amoebae do what many people do. Before they travel, they pack a lunch. In results of a study reported today in the journal Nature, evolutionary biologists Joan Strassmann and David Quelle ...
Jan 19, 2011 |
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Fungal spores travel farther by surfing their own wind (w/ Video)
Long before geese started flying in chevron formation or cyclists learned the value of drafting, fungi discovered an aerodynamic way to reduce drag on their spores so as to spread them as high and as far as ...
Sep 27, 2010 |
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Microbes survive a year and a half in space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria collected from rocks taken from the cliffs at the tiny English fishing village of Beer in Devon, have survived on the outside surface of the International Space Station for 553 days. ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 25, 2010 |
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Mosses use 'mushroom clouds' to spread spores (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in the US have solved the mystery of how peat mosses manage to get their spores high enough to catch the wind, discovering that they produce vortex rings of air, like miniature ...
Jul 23, 2010 |
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With fungi on their side, rice plants grow to be big
By tinkering with a type of fungus that lives in association with plant roots, researchers have found a way to increase the growth of rice by an impressive margin. The so-called mycorrhizal fungi are found ...
Jun 10, 2010 |
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Research on self-healing concrete yields cost-effective system to extend life of structures
Efforts to extend the life of structures and reduce repair costs have led engineers to develop "smart materials" that have self-healing properties, but many of these new materials are difficult to commercialize. A new self-healing ...
May 24, 2010 |
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Epidemic this year? Check the lake's shape
Of all the things that might control the onset of disease epidemics in Michigan lakes, the shape of the lakes' bottoms might seem unlikely. But that is precisely the case, and a new BioScience report by sci ...
May 05, 2010 |
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Lightning really does make mushrooms multiply
(PhysOrg.com) -- Japanese farming folklore has it that lightning makes mushrooms multiply, and new research supports the idea. Mushrooms form a staple part of the diet in Japan, and the fungi are in such high ...
Apr 13, 2010 |
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Ants die alone, protecting their nest mates from infection
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying ants have discovered that when they are seriously ill they voluntarily go away from the nest to die, which reduces the chances of them passing their infection to nest mates.
Feb 16, 2010 |
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After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape
(PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 19, 2009 |
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Spore
In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoans. A chief difference between spores and seeds as dispersal units is that spores have very little stored food resources compared with seeds.
Spores are usually haploid and unicellular and are produced by meiosis in the sporangium by the sporophyte. Once conditions are favorable, the spore can develop into a new organism using mitotic division, producing a multicellular gametophyte, which eventually goes on to produce gametes.
Two gametes fuse to create a new sporophyte. This cycle is known as alternation of generations, but a better term is "biological life cycle", as there may be more than one phase and so it cannot be a direct alternation. Haploid spores produced by mitosis (known as mitospores) are used by many fungi for asexual reproduction.
Many ferns, especially those adapted to dry conditions, produce diploid spores. This form of asexual reproduction is called apogamy. It is a form of apomixis.
Spores are the units of asexual reproduction, because a single spore develops into a new organism. By contrast, gametes are the units of sexual reproduction, as two gametes need to fuse to create a new organism.
For more information about Spore, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
