Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual organism. The sexual fusion of haploid cells is called karyogamy , the result of which is the formation of a diploid cell called the zygote or zygospore.
The diploid zygote undergoes repeated cellular division by mitosis to grow into the organism. In the haplontic life cycle (with post-zygotic meiosis), the organism is haploid, by the proliferation and differentiation of a single haploid cell called the gamete. Two organisms of opposing sex contribute their haploid gametes to form a diploid zygote.
Once fertilized, the ovum becomes a single diploid cell known as a zygote. The zygote undergoes mitotic divisions with no significant growth (a process known as cleavage) and cellular differentiation, leading to development of a multicellular embryo [2] after passing through an organizational checkpoint during mid-embryogenesis. [3]
Mitotic cell division enables sexually reproducing organisms to develop from the one-celled zygote, which itself is produced by fusion of two gametes, each having been produced by meiotic cell division. [5] [6] After growth from the zygote to the adult, cell division by mitosis allows for continual construction and repair of the organism. [7]
Two single-celled haploid gametes, each containing n unpaired chromosomes, fuse to form a single-celled diploid zygote, which now contains n pairs of chromosomes, i.e. 2n chromosomes in total. [17] The single-celled diploid zygote germinates, dividing by the normal process , which maintains the number of chromosomes at 2n.
The division of blastomeres from the zygote allows a single fertile cell to continue to cleave and differentiate until a blastocyst forms. The differentiation of the blastomere allows for the development of two distinct cell populations: the inner cell mass, which becomes the precursor to the embryo, and the trophectoderm, which becomes the precursor to the placenta.
Polar bodies serve to eliminate one half of the diploid chromosome set produced by meiotic division in the egg, leaving behind a haploid cell. To produce the polar bodies, the cell must divide asymmetrically, which is fueled by furrowing (formation of a trench) near a particular point on the cell membrane.
After the pollen tube enters the gametophyte, the pollen tube nucleus disintegrates and the two sperm cells are released; one of the two sperm cells fertilises the egg cell (at the bottom of the gametophyte near the micropyle), forming a diploid (2n) zygote. This is the point when fertilisation actually occurs; pollination and fertilisation are ...