Gamete: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Gamete
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A gamete (from Ancient Greek !"#$%& gamete "wife"
[1]
) is a cell that fuses with another cell during
fertilization (conception) in organisms that sexually reproduce. In species that produce two
morphologically distinct types of gametes, and in which each individual produces only one type, a
female is any individual that produces the larger type of gametecalled an ovum (or egg)and a
male produces the smaller tadpole-like typecalled a sperm. This is an example of anisogamy or
heterogamy, the condition in where females and males produce gametes of different sizes (this is the
case in humans; the human ovum has approximately 100,000 times the volume of a single human
sperm cell
[2][3]
). In contrast, isogamy is the state of gametes from both sexes being the same size and
shape, and given arbitrary designators for mating type. The name gamete was introduced by the
Austrian biologist Gregor Mendel. Gametes carry half the genetic information of an individual, 1n of
each type.
Contents
1 Dissimilarity
2 Plants
3 Sex determination
4 Notes and references
Dissimilarity
In contrast to a gamete, the diploid somatic cells of an individual contain one copy of the
chromosome set from the sperm and one copy of the chromosome set from the egg; that is, the cells
of the offspring have genes expressing characteristics of both the father and the mother. A gamete's
chromosomes are not exact duplicates of either of the sets of chromosomes carried in the dfs
chromosomes, and often undergo random mutations resulting in modied DNA (and subsequently,
new proteins and phenotypes).
Plants
Plants which reproduce sexually also have gametes. However, since plants have an alternation of
diploid and haploid generations some differences exist. In owering plants the owers use meiosis to
produce a haploid generation which produce gametes through mitosis. The female haploid is called
the ovule and is produced by the ovary of the ower. When mature the haploid ovule produces the
female gamete which are ready for fertilization. The male haploid is pollen and is produced by the
anther, when pollen lands on a mature stigma (botany) of a ower it grows a pollen tube down into
the ower. The haploid pollen then produces sperm by mitosis and releases them for fertilization.
Sex determination
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In humans, an ovum can carry only an X chromosome (of the X and Y chromosomes), whereas a
sperm may carry either an X or a Y; thus the male sperm determines the sex of any resulting zygote,
if the zygote has two X chromosomes it will develop into a female, if it has an X and a Y
chromosome, it will develop into a male.
[4]
For birds, the female ovum determines the sex of the
offspring, through the ZW sex-determination system.
[4]
Notes and references
^ "gamete" (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gamete&allowed_in_frame=0). Online
Etymology Dictionary.
1.
^ Marshall, A. M. 1893. Vertebrate embryology: a text-book for students and practitioners. GP Putnam's
sons.
2.
^ Yeung, C., M. Anapolski, M. Depenbusch, M. Zitzmann, and T. Cooper. 2003. Human sperm volume
regulation. Response to physiological changes in osmolality, channel blockers and potential sperm
osmolytes. Human Reproduction 18:1029.
3.
^
a

b
Jay Phelan (30 April 2009). What Is Life?: A Guide to Biology W/Prep-U (http://books.google.com
/books?id=F4okAxTXPtIC&pg=PA237). Macmillan. pp. 237. ISBN 978-1-4292-2318-8. Retrieved 8
October 2010.
4.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gamete&oldid=609461345"
Categories: Classical genetics Germ cells Reproductive system
This page was last modied on 21 May 2014 at 01:27.
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