Fungus - Sporophores, Spores, Reproduction (2024)

When the mycelium of a fungus reaches a certain stage of growth, it begins to produce spores either directly on the somatic hyphae or, more often, on special sporiferous (spore-producing) hyphae, which may be loosely arranged or grouped into intricate structures called fruiting bodies, or sporophores.

The more primitive fungi produce spores in sporangia, which are saclike sporophores whose entire cytoplasmic contents cleave into spores, called sporangiospores. Thus, they differ from more advanced fungi in that their asexual spores are endogenous. Sporangiospores are either naked and flagellated (zoospores) or walled and nonmotile (aplanospores). The more primitive aquatic and terrestrial fungi tend to produce zoospores. The zoospores of aquatic fungi and funguslike organisms swim in the surrounding water by means of one or two variously located flagella (whiplike organs of locomotion). Zoospores produced by terrestrial fungi are released after a rain from the sporangia in which they are borne and swim for a time in the rainwater between soil particles or on the wet surfaces of plants, where the sporangia are formed by parasitic fungi. After some time, the zoospores lose their flagella, surround themselves with walls, and encyst. Each cyst germinates by producing a germ tube. The germ tube may develop a mycelium or a reproductive structure, depending on the species and on the environmental conditions. The bread molds, which are the most advanced of the primitive fungi, produce only aplanospores (nonmotile spores) in their sporangia.

The more advanced fungi do not produce motile spores of any kind, even though some of them are aquatic in fresh or marine waters. In these fungi, asexually produced spores (usually called conidia) are produced exogenously and are typically formed terminally or laterally on special spore-producing hyphae called conidiophores. Conidiophores may be arranged singly on the hyphae or may be grouped in special asexual fruiting bodies, such as flask-shaped pycnidia, mattresslike acervuli, cushion-shaped sporodochia, or sheaflike synnemata.

Sexually produced spores of the higher fungi result from meiosis and are formed either in saclike structures (asci) typical of the Ascomycota or on the surface of club-shaped structures (basidia) typical of the Basidiomycota. Asci and basidia may be borne naked, directly on the hyphae, or in various types of sporophores, called ascocarps (also known as ascomata) or basidiocarps (also known as basidiomata), depending on whether they bear asci or basidia, respectively. Well-known examples of ascocarps are the morels, the cup fungi, and the truffles. Commonly encountered basidiocarps are mushrooms, brackets, puffballs, stinkhorns, and bird’s-nest fungi.