oospore

American  

[oh-uh-spawr, -spohr] / ˈoʊ əˌspɔr, -ˌspoʊr /

noun

Biology.

1. a fertilized egg within an oogonium.

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oospore British  

/ ˈəʊəˌspɔː /

noun

1. a thick-walled sexual spore that develops from a fertilized oosphere in some algae and fungi

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oospore Scientific  

/ ō′ə-spôr′ /

1. A fertilized female cell or zygote, especially one with thick chitinous walls, developed from a fertilized oosphere.

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Other Word Forms

• oosporic
  adjective
• oosporous
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of oospore

First recorded in 1860–65; oo- + -spore

Example Sentences

Two separate portions of its protoplasm become fused together, surround themselves with a thick coat and give rise to a sort of vegetable egg called an oospore.

From Discourses Biological and Geological Essays by Huxley, Thomas Henry

But the asexual generation derived from the oospore only for a short while remains in connection with the prothallium, which, of course, answers to the leafy portion of the moss.

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

After impregnation the fertilized oosphere immediately surrounds itself with a cell-wall and becomes the oospore which by a process of growth forms the embryo of the new plant.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 by Various

After the production of this oospore the parent filament gradually loses its vitality and slowly decays.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 by Various

Its extremity never opens, and we never find antherozoids; on the contrary, the antheridium presents, up to the maturity of the oospore, the appearance which it presented at the moment of fecundation.

From Fungi: Their Nature and Uses by Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)