Question

What is the difference in mechanism of production of sexual and asexual spores in fungi?

Answer 1

Dear Student,
Fungi reproduce both sexually or asexually. In sexual reproduction when both the mating-type is present on the same mycelium it is called homothallic and when they are present on the different mycelium it is called heterothallic. There are 3 stages in the sexual reproduction of fungi-:
1) Plasmogamy- Two haploid cells fuse, leads dikaryotic stage where two haploid nuclei present in a single cell.
2) Karyogamy - The haploid nuclei fuse to form a diploid zygote nucleus. this leads to
3) Meiosis- This takes place in the gametangia, in which gametes of different mating types are forms. At this stage, spores are disseminated into the environment.
Asexual reproduction in fungi takes place through fragmentation, budding or by the process of spores formation. Spore formation is the most common method of asexual reproduction in the fungi. Spores are produced by a single parent through the process of mitosis. It is genetically identical to the parents. They may be released from the parent thallus, maybe outside or within a special reproductive sac called a sporangium. There are many types of spores like conidiospores, basidiospores, etc. Sporangiospores are produced in a sporangium.
Regards.