noun
definition
A motile, ciliated male gamete produced in the antheridium of an alga, fern or gymnosperm.
Examples of spermatozoids in a Sentence
In some cases both the nucleus and the chromatophores may be carried along in the rotating stream, but in others, such as T.Titeila, the chloroplasts may remain motionless iii a non-motile layer of the cytoplasm in direct contact with the cell wall.i Desmids, Diatoms and Oscillaria show creeping movements probably due to the secretion of slime by the cells; the swarmspores and plasmodium of the Myxomycetes exhibit amoehoid movements; and the motile spores of Fungi and Algae, the spermatozoids of mosses, ferns, &c., move by means of delicate prolongations, cilia or flagella cf the protoplast.
In the spermatozoids of Chara, Vascular Cryptogams, and in those of Cycas, Zamia and Ginkgo, the cilia arise from a centrosome-like body which is found on one side of the nucleus of the spermatozoid mother-cell.
The Crustacea are - with the exception of the Cirrhipedia - remarkable for having stiff, motionless spermatozoids.
The female organs of certain cryptogams, for instance, exert a positive chemiotactic action upon the spermatozoids, and probably, as Pfeffer suggests, the chemical agent which exerts the influence is malic acid.
The pollen-grains when mature consist of three cells, two small and one large cell; the latter grows into the pollen-tube, as in the Coniferales, and from one of the small cells two large ciliated spermatozoids are eventually produced.
This thread gives rise to a spiral ciliated band lying in a depression on the body of each spermatozoid; the large spermatozoids eventually escape from the pollen-tube, and are able to perform ciliary movements in the watery liquid which occurs between the thin papery remnant of nucellar tissue and the archegonial necks.
The discovery by the Japanese botanist 'Erase of the development of ciliated spermatozoids in the pollen-tube of Ginkgo, in place of the non-motile male cells of typical conifers, served as a cogent argument in favour of separating the genus from the Coniferales and placing it in a class of its own.
The spermatozoids constitute the most striking link with both cycads and ferns.
The antheridia are deeply sunk in the tissue; the spermatozoids consist of a spiral of two or three coils, the numerous cilia being attached to the pointed anterior end.
The spermatozoids are biciliate.
On germination the microspores give rise to a reduced prothallus, consisting of the small cell first cut off and a wall of cells enclosing two to four central ones; "from these latter the biciliate spermatozoids originate.
Important points of difference are found in the multiciliate spermatozoids, and in the embryo, which has no suspensor.
The microspores on germination produce a small, greatly reduced male prothallus bearing one or two antheridia which give rise to a number of spirally coiled, multiciliate spermatozoids.
In the light of our present knowledge of Ginkgo and the Cycads, there can scarcely be a doubt that spermatozoids were formed in the cells of the antheridium of the Cordaitean pollen-grain and that of other Palaeozoic Spermophyta; the an theridium is much more developed than in any recent Gymnosperm, and it may be doubted whether any pollen-tube was formed.