Question

Explain sexual cycle of Fungi.

Answer 1

1. Sexual reproduction, an important source of genetic variability, allows the fungus to adapt to new environments.​
2. Sexual reproduction in the fungi consists of three sequential stages: plasmogamy, karyogamy and meiosis.

• First, 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.
• During karyogamy ("nuclear marriage"), the haploid nuclei fuse to form a diploid zygote nucleus.
• Finally, meiosis takes place in the gametangia (singular, gametangium) organs, in which gametes of different mating types are generated. At this stage, spores are disseminated into the environment.