Zygomycete Asexual Reproduction
Zygomycete fungal mycelium is coenocytic. At the onset of sporulation large amounts of aerial hyphae are produced. The tips of these aerial hyphae fill with cytoplasmic contents, and the nuclei undergo repeated mitosis. Around each of the nuclei cytoplasm and organelles collect, and by the formation of copious vesicles from the Golgi, each nucleus becomes isolated from the next by a plasma membrane. Within the spaces created by this cytoplasmic cleavage, spore walls begin to form, again by the fusion of Golgi vesicles containing cell wall monomers and enzymes with the spore membrane. A sporangium forms. As these events occur so there is considerable water uptake by the forming sporangium, and as the columella forms the structure comes under considerable turgor pressure. The large sporangia can contain up to 100,000 spores (Fig 3).