Small land plant spores that develop into male gametophytes
Microspores are land plantspores that develop into male gametophytes, whereas megaspores develop into female gametophytes.[1] The male gametophyte gives rise to sperm cells, which are used for fertilization of an egg cell to form a zygote. Megaspores are structures that are part of the alternation of generations in many seedless vascular cryptogams, all gymnosperms and all angiosperms. Plants with heterosporous life cycles using microspores and megaspores arose independently in several plant groups during the Devonian period.[2] Microspores are haploid, and are produced from diploid microsporocytes by meiosis.[3]
^Bateman, R.M.; Dimichele, W.A. (1994). "Heterospory – the most iterative key innovation in the evolutionary history of the plant kingdom". Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 69 (3): 345–417. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.1994.tb01276.x. S2CID29709953.
^Bidlack, James E.; Jansky, Shelley H. (2011). Stern's Introductory Plant Biology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN978-0-07-304052-3.