Video Transcript
The figure shows the fruiting
bodies of a bread mold, Rhizopus stolonifer, that form when it is reproducing
asexually. What is released from this
structure?
Reproduction is the biological
process through which organisms produce offspring. There are two main types of
reproduction: sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction, which is the
method of interest to us in this question, involves only one parent and can occur
through different mechanisms, depending on species.
This question specifically concerns
asexual reproduction in a species called Rhizopus stolonifer, a type of
fungus which grows on bread and we would commonly call bread mold. Let’s take a closer look at how
these fungi reproduce asexually so that we can work out the correct answer to this
question.
What we can observe with a naked
eye as mold on bread is actually just the reproductive parts of the fungus. These structures are called
fruiting bodies. Fruiting bodies are produced when
the fungus is ready to reproduce asexually by the vast network of threadlike fungal
filaments called hyphae that are found below the surface of the bread.
The fruiting bodies of fungi can
undergo a reproductive process called sporogenesis, which can either be a form of
sexual or asexual reproduction. When sporogenesis is carried out by
fungi, the fruiting bodies produce and release single-celled structures called
spores.
Interestingly, other species, such
as nonflowering plants, like mosses and ferns, and many species of algae can also
carry out sporogenesis to produce and release spores. But it occurs slightly differently
in these organisms. Once released, the fungal spores
disperse, and those that land on a suitable surface can grow into a new network of
hyphae. When sporogenesis is carried out by
fungi reproducing asexually, it produces offspring that are genetically identical to
the single parent that produced them.
Having explored sporogenesis in
more detail, we can now answer this question correctly. The fruiting bodies of fungi
reproducing asexually produce and release structures called spores.
