Aadya Apte: Your Tutoring Companion

Answer

ome algae, some protozoans, and the true slime molds (Myxomycetes) regularly divide by multiple fission. In such cases the nucleus undergoes several mitotic divisions, producing a number of nuclei. After the nuclear divisions are complete, the cytoplasm separates, and each nucleus becomes encased in its own membrane to form an individual cell. In the Myxomycetes, the fusion of two haploid gametes or the fusion of two or more diploid zygotes (the structures that result from the union of two sex cells) results in the formation of a plasmodium—a motile, multinucleate mass of cytoplasm. The nuclei are in a syncytium, that is, there are no cell boundaries, and the nuclei flow freely in the motile plasmodium. As it feeds, the plasmodium enlarges, and the nuclei divide synchronously about once every 24 hours. The plasmodium may become very large, with millions of nuclei, but, ultimately, when conditions are right, it forms a series of small bumps, each of which becomes a small, fruiting body (a structure that bears the spores). During this process the nuclei undergo meiosis, and the final haploid nuclei are then isolated into uninucleate spores (reproductive bodies).