Fig. 130.
Conjugation in spirogyra; from left to right beginning in the upper row is shown the gradual passage of the protoplasm from the supplying gamete to the receiving gamete.
291. How the protoplasm moves from one cell to another.—Before any movement of the protoplasm of the supplying cell takes place we can see that there is great activity in its protoplasm. Rounded vacuoles appear which increase in size, are filled with a watery fluid, and swell up like a vesicle, and then suddenly contract and disappear. As the vacuole disappears it causes a sudden movement or contraction of the protoplasm around it to take its place. Simultaneously with the disappearance of the vacuole the membrane of the protoplasm is separated from a part of the wall. This is probably brought about by a sudden loss of some of the water in the cell-sap. These activities go on, and the protoplasmic membrane continues to slip away from the wall. Every now and then there is a movement by which the protoplasm is moved a short distance. It is moved toward the tube and finally a portion of it with one end of the chlorophyll band begins to move into the tube. About this time the vacuoles can be seen in an active condition in the receptive cell. At short intervals movement continues until the content of the supplying cell has passed over into that of the receptive cell. The protoplasm of this one is now slipping away from the cell wall, until finally the two masses round up into the one zygospore.
292. The zygospore.—This zygospore now acquires a thick wall which eventually becomes brown in color. The chlorophyll color fades out, and a large part of the protoplasm passes into an oily substance which makes it more resistant to conditions which would be fatal to the vegetative threads. The zygospores are capable therefore of enduring extremes of cold and dryness which would destroy the threads. They pass through a “resting” period, in which the water in the pond may be frozen, or dried, and with the oncoming of favorable conditions for growth in the spring or in the autumn they germinate and produce the green thread again.
293. Life cycle.—The growth of the spirogyra thread, the conjugation of the gametes and formation of the zygospore, and the growth of the thread from the zygospore again, makes what is called a complete life cycle.
294. Fertilization.—While conjugation results in the fusion of the two masses of protoplasm, fertilization is accomplished when the nuclei of the two cells come together in the zygospore and fuse into a single nucleus. The different stages in the fusion of the two nuclei of a recently formed zygospore are shown in [figure 131].
In the conjugation of the two cells, the chlorophyll band of the supplying cell is said to degenerate, so that in the new plant the number of chlorophyll bands in a cell is not increased by the union of the two cells.
Fig. 131.
Fertilization in spirogyra; shows different stages of fusion of the two nuclei, with mature zygospore at right. (After Overton.)