basidiospore

American  

[buh-sid-ee-oh-spawr, -spohr] / bəˈsɪd i oʊˌspɔr, -ˌspoʊr /

noun

Mycology.

1. a spore that is borne by a basidium.

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basidiospore British  

/ bæˈsɪdɪəʊˌspɔː /

noun

1. one of the spores, usually four in number, produced in a basidium

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basidiospore Scientific  

/ bə-sĭd′ē-ə-spôr′ /

1. A sexually produced fungal spore borne on a basidium in the fungi known as basidiomycetes. Basidiospores are produced by the union of the nuclei at the tip of a binucleated segment of a hypha. The resulting zygote then divides by meiosis into four haploid nuclei, each of which migrates to the very tip to be released as a basidiospore. A typical mushroom produces billions of basidiospores.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• basidiosporous
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of basidiospore

First recorded in 1855–60; basidi(um) + -o- + -spore

Example Sentences

The young basidium contains two nuclei, which later fuse; the fusion-nucleus then undergoes two successive divisions, involving a reduction of chromosomes, and each of the four resultant nuclei passes through a sterigma into a basidiospore.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

Typically, e.g. in the Toad-stools, it is a club-shaped structure, produced at its free end into four slender processes, the sterigmata, each of which bears a basidiospore at its tip.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

Some of these terminal cells push out a little finger of protoplasm, which swells, thickens its wall, and becomes detached from the mother-cell as a spore, here called specially a basidiospore.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 531, March 6, 1886 by Various

D, Passage of a nucleus through the sterigma into the basidiospore.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various