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

After a period of rest, the contents of the oospore break up into a number of zoospores like those already described, each of which, after a period of activity, germinates in the ordinary way.

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

Moreover, as in the Peronospora, conjugation may take place and result in an oospore; the contents of which divide and are set free as monadiform germs.

From Discourses Biological and Geological Essays by Huxley, Thomas Henry

The oospore becomes an oosporangium, and from it at least a hundred germinating bodies are at length expelled.

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

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