Sporophyte
Diploid phase producing spores by meiosis in plant life cycles.
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The sporophyte is the multicellular diploid phase in the life cycle of land plants and most multicellular algae.[1] It develops from a zygote formed by the fusion of haploid sperm and egg cells.[1] The sporophyte produces haploid spores through meiosis.[2]
Quick Facts
- Type
- Multicellular phase in life cycles
- Ploidy
- Diploid
- Reproduction
- Produces asexual spores by meiosis
- Alternates with
- Haploid gametophyte phase
- Dependent in
- Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts)
Facts from the source article.
Biology and range
In seed plants, the sporophyte is the dominant, familiar green plant with roots, stem, leaves, and cones or flowers.[1] Bryophytes have a dominant gametophyte on which the adult sporophyte depends for nutrition.[3] Most algae have dominant gametophytes, but some species have isomorphic sporophytes and gametophytes.[4] Through a process called meiosis, or reduction division, the sporophyte generates spores, each spore mother cell having its chromosome count halved.[2]
In the sporophyte's germline reproductive tissues, meiosis offers a direct method for repairing DNA damage, including that from oxidation.[2] The zygote, formed within the female archegonium, divides to produce the sporophyte embryo, which is initially nourished by the gametophyte.[3]
What the specialist sources record
Early land plants had sporophytes producing identical spores, but gymnosperm ancestors evolved heterospory with different-sized male and female spores.[4] During the Devonian, several plant groups independently evolved heterospory and endospory, where gametophytes develop inside the spore wall.[5] Endosporic plants like seed ferns developed megagametophytes within parent sporophyte sporangia, producing miniature female gametophytes with archegonia.[5] The resulting zygote developed into the next sporophyte while retained within the pre-ovule.[5]
The earliest steps toward the seeds produced by gymnosperms and angiosperms included the evolution of heterospory and endospory.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Sporophyte" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: QIU, "Evolution of the life cycle in land plants", Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 16 March 2012, p. 171–194 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sporophyte" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Apomixis and the paradox of sex in plants", Ann Bot, June 2024, p. 1–18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sporophyte" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Development, genetics and molecular biology of mosses.", Botanica Acta, February 1998, p. 1–5; Niklas, "The evolution of the land plant life cycle", New Phytologist, 2010, p. 27–41 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sporophyte" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Heterospory - the most iterative key innovation in the evolutionary history of the plant kingdom", Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1994, p. 345–417 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sporophyte" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Unique Epigenetic Features of Ribosomal RNA Genes (rDNA) in Early Diverging Plants (Bryophytes)", Frontiers in Plant Science, 2019, p. 1066 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Sporophyte (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Sporophyte (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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