An Observation of the Mitosis And Meiosis Life Cycle of a C-Fern

The life cycle of a fern starts with a single sporangium from the sorus as they are homosporous. Each heart-shaped gametophytes has both male and female sexual pans. That is how the fern are able to reproduce from a single spore. The C-Fern or, Ceratopteris richardii, has a unique life cycle in which both the gametophyte and sporophyte phases exist from the same sporei It also has a life cycle of less than twelve weeks, During the twelve weeks we can observe the life cycle as it goes through different stages of life with more complexity than a moss or algae.

The antheridium is the male sex organ of the spore and the archegonium is the female sex organ. They usually mature separately allowing them to fertilize with the corresponding sex organ, Fertilization occurs when the sperm from an antheridium move to fertilize the egg of the archegonium.

The sperm however has to have some water in order to travel to the archegonium.

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They travel by whipping their flagella in order to propel them to direction they need to, Once the zygote has been created by the sperm and egg we experience an alteration of generations The diploid will go through mitosis and meiosis and the life cycle repeats once the plant has matured. The C-Fern are so successful because of the factors that go into the life cycle process, The C-Fern has a successful reproduction then other plants because don't need as much opportunities to grow, they have both sexual organs in a spore, and their life cycle is relatively fast.

C-Ferns are a genus of the homosporous ferns that are found in most tropical and subtropical areas of the world. They are a subeaquatic type of plant that need humid conditions or around water in order to be grown.

Unlike flowering plants the gametophytes of ferns contain chlorophyll, and are free living and completely independent of the fertilization portion of the life cycle. The other difference between the C—Fern and the flowering plants is that the C»Fern do not need polleners as standing or slow running water is enough for them to sexually reproduce. In comparison to mosses the ferns are able to exploit somewhat drier habitats then their close relatives, That is because they possess a vascular tissue that helps transports water and nutrients throughout the plant. The advantages the C—Fern has over other plants is that if it's kept dry, the spores remain usable for many years until it has the necessary amount of water to develop Even with identical genus the C-Fern does not take as long to grow as they do not have a secondary growth.

Unlike most plants they are homosporoust A single plant can essentially develop new plants with a single spores So the spores of the fern are able to produce an unlimited number of genetically identical plants This is possible with the simple gametophytic phase which develops both the archegonium and the antheridium. Since It has both the female sexual organs and the male sexual organs it is a hermaphrodite. Because the development of this stage is quick the germination does not take as long and the sexual maturity is attained within six days thereafter. When it has reach maturity the female organs and the male organs develop. The female part which is the archegonia has small neck that sticks out where the central canal cell will develop. In the central canal cell an egg will form in the presence of water.

The sperm than swim to the egg by moving with their flagella In minutes many sperm will have swarm the neck of the female sex organ and eventually fertilize the egg. The sperm are able to swarm so fast is because the prothallium is smallt After fertilization the zygote divides and forms an embryo, The sporophyte phase comes in with the presence of root and leaves, When the plants grow to maturity it will produce sporangium in clusters of sporus to begin a new life cycle. Because the C-Fern has both sexual organs it is able to reproduce faster than plants that do not have both. Development of the haploid phase is very rapid In a couple weeks after the spore has enough water the female and male gametophytes are visible.

They quickly develop and in a week or two the sperm fertilizes the eggs The development quickly develops as the diploid cells divide to become a mature plant. Although the haploid stage takes a little longer than the haploid stage to reach maturity the C- Fern grows rapidly in comparison to other ferns, That is because the other ferns go through a secondary growth while the C»Fern is a annual plant The faster it is able to grow the better its chances for reproduction. As mentioned in the above paragraphs in the lab experimentation we suspended the spores in a water solution in the petri dish on day 0. As it needs water in order to sexually reproduce with itselfl On day 7 we unfortunately contaminated the spores and had to throw them away. This could have been a cross contamination problem or not enough spores.

On day 14 tendrils have formed and the beginning stages of gametophyte is observables Which shows that in two weeks that gametophytes have already formed. On day 28 the hermaphrodite has grown and more features of the plant are seen We are one week behind a hypothetical situation but the female and male parts are being developed. On day 35 we can observe the gametophyte in a heart shape and the secondary gametophyte in a tongue shape which show male and female parts. On day 49 C-fern has encompassed the whole dish has it grown bigger in size. On day 56 we can see the very early stages of the haploid process. That is because we can observe some roots and it has grown more. Which is right on time of what we would expect.