Zygospores are sexually produced, thick-walled spores formed by fungi in the phylum Zygomycota during sexual reproduction.

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Zygomycota is a phylum of fungi, mostly saprophytic, characterized by coenocytic hyphae and haploid nuclei. They reproduce asexually using sporangiospores and sexually using thick-walled zygospores formed by the fusion of reproductive cells from two individuals.

Zygomycota

Fungi reproduce sexually through either cross- or self-fertilization, involving two distinct mating types designated as $$+$$ and $$-$$ types. During this process, haploid fungi form hyphae with gametes at their tips. After the cytoplasm and nuclei of these gametes fuse, the resulting diploid zygote undergoes meiosis to produce spores, which germinate to initiate a new haploid stage and form haploid mycelia.

Sexual Reproduction of Fungi

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Zygospores

The life cycle of zygomycetes involves an asexual phase where mycelia produce haploid spores via mitosis that germinate into new mycelia, and a sexual phase where adjacent $$+$$ and $$-$$ mating types form gametangia that fuse via plasmogamy to create a zygosporangium. After karyogamy fuses the nuclei into a diploid zygote, it undergoes meiosis, and a sporangium grows to release new haploid spores.

Zygomycete Life Cycle

Rhizopus stolonifer is a species of zygomycete fungus that acts as a common bread mold and serves as a crop pathogen causing rice seedling blight.

Rhizopus stolonifer

Mucor is a genus of zygomycete fungi capable of causing necrotizing infections in humans, though most species are unable to tolerate mammalian body temperatures.

Mucor

Plasmogamy is a stage of sexual reproduction in which the cytoplasm of two cells fuses together (e.g., the fusion of $$+$$ and $$-$$ type gametes in fungi or the fusion of two cells in slime molds).

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