noun
definition
An immature ovarian egg within a developing fetus
definition
A sac (the female gametangium) containing oospheres in algae or fungi.
Examples of oogonium in a Sentence
Monoblepharis has oogonia with single oospheres and antheridia developing a few amoeboid uniciliate antherozoids; these creep to the opening of the oogonium and then swim in.
The contents of the antheridium are not set free, but that organ penetrates the oogonium by means of a narrow outgrowth, the fertilizing tube, and a male nucleus then passes over into the single oosphere, which at first multinucleate becomes uninucleate before fertilization.
Young tube (a) of the antheridium multinucleate oogonium (og) which introduces the male and antheridium (an).
In some forms we find definite male and female sexual organs (Sphaerotheca, Pyronema, &c.), in others the antheridium is abortive or absent, but the ascogonium (oogonium) is still present and the female nuclei fuse in pairs (Lachnea stercorea, Humaria granulata, Ascobolus furfuraceus); while in other forms ascogonium and antheridium are both absent and fusion occurs between vegetative nuclei (Humaria rutilans, and probably the majority of other forms).
The I, Oogonium (og) with the an5, Fertilized oogonium sur theridial branch (az) applied rounded by two layers of to its surface.
In such a case the zoogamete is male, is called an antherozoid or spermatozoid, and arises in an antheridium; the larger gamete is an oosphere and arises in an oogonium.
It is interesting to know, on the authority of Oltmanns, that when the oosphere is forming in the oogonium of Vaucheria, there is a retrocession of all the included nuclei but one.
Again, in oogamous reproduction, while in general only one oosphere is differentiated in the oogonium, in Sphaeroplea several oospheres arise in each oogonium; and while the oospheres usually contract away from the oogonial wall, acquiring for themselves a new cell-wall after fertilization, in Coleochaete the oosphere remains throughout in contact with the oogonial wall.
The oosphere is in all cases fertilized while still within the oogonium, the antherozoids being admitted by means of a pore.
The oogonium, seated on a stalk cell, is surrounded by an investment consisting of five spirallywound cells, from the projecting ends of which segments are cut off, constituting the so-called stigma.
The oosphere is not differentiated within the wall of the oogonium, but certain cells known as wendungszellen, the significance of which has given rise to much speculation, are cut off from the basal portion of the parent-cell during its development.