[sonicvibe]

HELP!! What two advantages might be gained by having a heterosporous lifecycle?

[FrOsT_bItE]

If this is a question for homework assignments etc, then you should be figuring it out yourself. First of all you don't know if the person answering it is wrong or right and you MUST learn otherwise your never going to understand. By posting these kinds of questions on here shouldn't be allowed, it's a shortcut (and a cheat) for kids to take advantage of. I know it helps but questions for homework/assignments shouldn't be allowed. If you are having trouble with this conversation... ASK YOUR PARENTS OR TEACHER. It helps and at least they'll know what there doing!

Lottsa RAWRS and kisses,

Shaz

[sonicvibe]

Hmmmm I thought asking hw questions would be OK but I guess not. But what if I showed some work like I tried answering the question? For one advantage the male gametophyte would use as much of its sperm as possibly can so to fertilize the female gametophyte so the zygote will have more chance of production. For another advantage, it permits development of the different spores in different ways(thus vulnerable stages eliminated). I think these answers aren't correct. Helppp!!

[FrOsT_bItE]

Hw old are you? Out of curiosity

[sonicvibe]

Oh I think it's more than out of curiousity. Don't ban me for posting a hw question! I'm just trying to get help! I showed some work! :D... are you on to me? AHHHHHHHHHH!

[templelane]

for one advantage the male gametophyte would use as much of its sperm as possibly can so to fertilize the female gametophyte so the zygote will have more chance of production. for another advantage, it permits development of the different spores in different ways(thus vulnerable stages eliminated). ? i think these answers aren't correct. helppp!!!

Ok you are thinking, I don't really understand what you are trying to say in the first section. Also the male spore can't really be called sperm - that's an animal thing.
Your second thought I don't think is right as it doesn't really make the system less vulnerable. For example if something happened to destroy all the male spores the female spore can't compensate as they require the male spores for fertilisation. So I don't think that really works- still it was a good thing to think of, they'll be some systems where this line of thought would be true.

You understand that there is a male and a female spore which is good :)

In Homospory they are all the same, also they are all pretty small.
In Heterospory, you have a large female megaspore and the smaller male microspore.

What advantage could having a LARGE spore have over just lots of little ones? Here's a clue it's a stepping stone in evolution to seed production. What do seeds contain a lot of for the growing baby plant?

Post back and I'll tell you if you are right.

[sonicvibe]

When you say What advantage could having a LARGE spore have over just lots of little ones you mean the female megaspore over the male microspore right? Well seeds contain a lot of food reserves (gametophyte tissue) and so the embryo(new sporophyte) can be nourished by this and develop into a mature sporophyte.

So... I guess one advantage is that the seeds in the heterosporous lifecycle will be more efficient in growing than compared to the homosporous lifecycle where when spores are smaller, they'll be more likely to die off?

Hmmmm. I'm not sure... could you fix my answer? Thanks. :D

[templelane]

Yep, that's it!
The female megaspore contains food reserves giving the fertilised spore more chance of maturing into a plant.
:)

[sonicvibe]

Yay!! Thanks! Any idea what a second advantage could be? Could you give me another hint? :D