So they call a special kind of cells with a fairly dense membrane. What are disputes? They can be present in several categories of organisms: bacteria, fungi, plants. Their functions are different. If in bacteria the formation of these cells serves as a way of protection from adverse environmental conditions, a method of preserving the species, then in plants and fungi it is also for reproduction. You will learn about disputes in biology and many other interesting things from our article.
In microorganisms
The very word "dispute" is of Greek origin, and it means "seed" or "sowing." What are bacteria spores? These microscopic organisms, as the most ancient inhabitants on Earth, had to protect themselves as much as possible from all sorts of disasters that have occurred over all these times. And nature endowed them with an excellent margin of safety, which has no analogues. Bacteria can withstand nitrogen freezing, can live in hot geysers, where the water temperature reaches almost a boil. Some microbes live both in acid lakes and in a hydrogen sulfide environment. They live high in the atmosphere, and deep in the soil, and under water, leaving bacteria spores everywhere. What does it mean? If the living conditions are unfavorable, the bacterium does not die, but forms a certain form of its existence, called a spore.
Saving view
Such a change, a new shaping of the body is caused, as a rule, by a lack of nutrition, temperature changes, and changes in humidity. This, figuratively speaking, is the "insurance" of the bacteria, and in this form it can be preserved, be insured against extinction for many years. Different bacteria have different spores. For example, in a hay stick, they are in the center and do not exceed the diameter of the microorganism. In others, they exceed the diameter and are located at the end of the cell. If the spore is inside the bacterium (and the microorganism can form only one), then this is the endospore. The microbe that creates such a spore is called sporangium. But it also happens that the spore is covered with an additional protective shell, and the rest of the cell, as it were, dies. In the new formation, the metabolic process is suspended, there is practically no liquid, and the matter is significantly reduced in volume, as if it “dries out”.
What are fungal spores?
In the kingdom of mushrooms, combining some of the signs of both plants and animals, everything happens a little differently. Here spores are formed mainly for the purpose of reproduction. What does “disputes” mean in mycology (a science that studies mushrooms)? On earth, according to some scientists, there are more than a million species of mushrooms. They have become an integral part of terrestrial, underground and aquatic ecosystems. How do mushrooms spread around the world with such speed?
And this happens thanks to the disputes intended by nature for reproduction. The spore of the fungus contains one or more cells of microscopic size. There are very few nutrients, the formation is a kind of concentrate. Spores are very light, so they "travel" with the help of wind and water, with the participation of other living organisms. Many of them die while the rare ones survive. The death is compensated by nature: the number of spores is huge. For example, champignons can form up to forty billion spores per hour! Once in fairly favorable conditions, the surviving spores germinate, give rise to a new mycelium of the fungus. Formation data exist for asexual (mitospores) and sexual (meiospores) reproduction. Their functions are different. The first are intended for mass resettlement, increase in numbers during the vegetative periods. And the second - rather, to improve the quality of reproduction.
In plants
What are disputes in the kingdom of flora? All plants, in one form or another, can form spores. This process is called sporogenesis. However, it is customary to call spores those plants that are technically distributed and propagated using these forms. These are mainly algae, ferns, mosses, crowns, horsetails. It is believed that in the evolutionary process (about 400 million years ago) from green algae originated higher plants that multiplied by spores - rhinophytes. They are the progenitors of all the highest spore and seed representatives of the fauna that exist in the modern world.