Gametophyte

Several gametophytes growing in a terrarium.

A gametophyte is a stage in the life cycle of plants

and algae that undergo alternation of generations. It is
a haploid multicellular organism that develops from a
haploid spore that has one set of chromosomes. The gametophyte is the sexual phase in the life cycle of plants
and algae. It develops sex organs that produce gametes,
haploid sex cells that participate in fertilization to form a
diploid zygote in which each cell has two sets of chromosomes. Cell division of the zygote results in a new diploid
multicellular organism, the second stage in the life cycle
known as the sporophyte, the function of which is to produce haploid spores by meiosis.
Pine gametophyte (outside) surrounding the embryo (inside)

Algae
2.1 Bryophytes

In some multicellular green algae (Ulva lactuca is one example), red algae and brown algae sporophytes and gametophytes may be externally indistinguishable (isomorphic). In Ulva the gametes are isogamous, all of one size,
shape and general morphology.[1]

In bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts), the

gametophyte is the most visible stage of the life cycle.
The bryophyte gametophyte is longer lived, nutritionally
independent, and the sporophytes are typically attached
to the gametophytes and dependent on them.[2] When a
moss spore germinates it grows to produce a lament of
cells (called the protonema). The mature gametophyte
2 Land plants
of mosses develops into leafy shoots that produce sex orEggs develop in
In land plants, anisogamy is universal. As in animals, fe- gans (gametangia) that produce gametes.
[3]
archegonia
and
sperm
in
antheridia.
male and male gametes are called, respectively, eggs and
sperm. Either the sporophyte or the gametophyte may be In some bryophyte groups such as many liverworts of the
order Marchantiales, the gametes are produced on spereduced (heteromorphic).
1

REFERENCES

cialized structures called gametophores (or gametangio- In plants with heteromorphic gametophytes, there are two
phores).
distinct kinds of gametophytes. Because the two gametophytes dier in form and function, they are termed heteromorphic, from hetero- dierent and morph form.
2.2 Ferns
The egg producing gametophyte is known as a megagametophyte, because it is typically larger, and the sperm
In most ferns, gametophyte is a photosynthetic free liv- producing gametophyte is known as a microgametoing organism called a prothallus. For example, in the phyte. Gametophytes which produce egg and sperm on
leptosporangiate fern Dryopteris, the gametophyte is a separate plants are termed Dioicous.
free-living, autotrophic prothallus that produces gametes
In heterosporous plants (water ferns, some lycophytes, as
and maintains the sporophyte during its early multicelluwell as all gymnosperms and angiosperms), there are two
lar development. However in some groups, notably the
distinct sporangia, each of which produces a single kind
clade that includes Ophioglossaceae and Psilotaceae, the
of spore and single kind of gametophyte. However, not all
gametophytes are subterranean and subsist by forming
heteromorphic gametophytes come from heterosporous
mycotrophic relationships with fungi.
plants. That is, some plants have distinct egg-producing
and sperm-producing gametophytes, but these gametophytes develop from the same kind of spore inside the
2.3 Lycophytes
same sporangium; Sphaerocarpos is an example of such
a plant.
Extant lycophytes produce several dierent types of
gametophytes.
In the families Lycopodiaceae and In the seed plants, the microgametophyte is called pollen.
Huperziaceae, gametophytes are subterranean and Seed plant microgametophytes consists of two or three
mycotrophic, deriving nutrients from symbiosis with cells when the pollen grains exit the sporangium. The
fungi. Isoetes and Selaginella, which are heterosporous, megagametophyte develops within the megaspore of exmegagametophytes develop inside the megaspores, which tant seedless vascular plants and within the megaspocrack open at the trilete suture to allow the male gametes rangium in a cone or ower in seed plants. In seed plants,
to access the egg cells in the archegonia inside. The ga- the microgametophyte (pollen grain) travels to the vicinmetophytes of Isoetes appear to be similar in this respect ity of the egg cell (carried by a physical or animal vector),
to those of the extinct Carboniferous giant arborescent and produces two sperm by mitosis.
clubmosses, Lepidodendron and Lepidostrobus.[4]
In gymnosperms the megagametophyte consists of

2.4

Seed plants

several thousand cells and produces one to several

archegonia, each with a single egg cell. The gametophyte
becomes a food storage tissue in the seed.[7]

By contrast, in seed plants (gymnosperms and In angiosperms, the megagametophyte is reduced to only
angiosperms), gametophytes develop into multicellular a few nuclei and cells, and is sometimes called the embryo
organisms while still enclosed within the sporangium.[5] sac. A typical embryo sac contains seven cells and eight
nuclei, one of which is the egg cell. Two nuclei fuse with
Vascular plants that produce only one type of spore a sperm nucleus to form endosperm, which becomes the
are said to be homosporous. They have exosporic food storage tissue in the seed.
gametophytesthat is, the gametophyte is free-living
and develops outside of the spore wall. Exosporic gametophytes are normally bisexual, capable of producing both sperm and eggs. In heterosporous vascular 4 See also
plants (plants that produce both microspores and megaspores), the gametophyte develops endosporically, within
Sporophyte
the spore wall. These gametophytes are unisexual, pro Alternation of generations
ducing either sperm or eggs but not both.
All vascular plants are sporophyte dominant, and a trend
toward smaller and more sporophyte-dependent female
gametophytes is evident as land plants evolved towards
reproduction by seeds.[6]

Heteromorphy

Main articles: Dioicous and Heterospory

Archegonium
Antheridium

5 References
[1] Sadava, David; Hillis, David; Heller, H. Craig; Berenbaum, May (2012). Life: The Science of Biology, Volume
1 (10th ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 978-1464141225.

[2] Budke, J.M.; Gonet, B.; Jones, C.S. (2013). Dehydration protection provided by a maternal cuticle improves
ospring tness in the moss Funaria hygrometrica". Annals of Botany. 111: 781789. doi:10.1093/aob/mct033.
[3] Ralf Reski (1998): Development, genetics and molecular
biology of mosses. In: Botanica Acta 111, pp 1-15.
[4] Brack-Hanes, S.D. (1978). On the megagametophytes of
two Lepidodendracean cones.. Botanical Gazette. 139:
140146. doi:10.1086/336979.
[5] C.Michael Hogan (2010): Fern. Encyclopedia of Earth.
National council for Science and the Environment. Washington, DC
[6] Stewart, W.N.; Rothwell, G.W. Palaeobotany and the evolution of plants, second edition. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University press. ISBN 0521382947.
[7] Vascular Plants :: Description. Digimuse.nmns.edu.tw.
Retrieved 2014-07-13.

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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