Question

During reproduction in certain fungi, when the two hyphae fuse together, there is a fusion of cytoplasm, but the nuclei remain separate. What is this phenomenon known as?
a) Syncytium
b) Karyogamy
c)Plasmogamy
d)Fibroblast

Answer 1

Hint The reproduction in fungi is caused by the asexual means of the reproduction. These asexual means include fragmentation, budding, or production of spores. The hyphae can form fragments that have the ability to give rise to the new colonies of fungi.

Complete answer: In the sexual reproduction of the fungi there is the presence of two-parent cells or the mycelia. In this, the fusion of their cytoplasm occurs but the nuclei do not fuse with each other. This leads to the presence of two nuclei in a single cell. This leads to the nuclei staying close to each other. Then the nuclei fuse together to form the diploid cell and then divide to form the spores. The spores are formed from the meiosis. There is a stage in the fungi which is called plasmogamy which is when the fungi undergo sexual reproduction and the fusion of cytoplasm takes place but the nuclei are unable to divide. In some plants, plasmogamy takes place followed by the karyogamy and in some fungi after plasmogamy, they stay arrested in that phase only, and then karyogamy occurs.

So, the answer is ‘plasmogamy’.

Note: In the sexual reproduction of the fungi there occurs three stages which include plasmogamy, karyogamy, and meiosis. In fungi, the sexual reproduction occurs when the environmental conditions get worse for the fungi. The reproduction occurs through the mycelium. In karyogamy, the nuclei fuse to form a diploid zygote nucleus. And when meiosis takes place then spores formed are released into the air.