Definition of oogonium in English:
oogonium
nounPlural oogonia ˌəʊəˈɡəʊnɪəmˌōəˈɡōnēəm
1Botany
The female sex organ of certain algae and fungi, typically a rounded cell or sac containing one or more oospheres.
Example sentencesExamples
- The parent also contains antheridia which produce sperm and an oogonium which produces the egg.
- ‘Oomycota’ means ‘egg fungi,’ and refers to the large round oogonia, or structures containing the female gametes, as shown in this picture of the common ‘water mold’ Saprolegnia.
- Further comparison might be made between the stalked and vase-shaped vesicles found on some fossil cells with the oogonia of certain living Vaucheria species.
- The germinal epithelium is composed of epithelial cells that become prefollicle cells when associated with oogonia, as in Fundulus grandis.
2Biology
An immature female reproductive cell that gives rise to primary oocytes by mitosis.
Example sentencesExamples
- In the case of developing eggs, the diploid oogonia continue to divide mitotically for a short time in the ovary.
- Hypotheses were developed to explain why stem-line oogonia are restricted to the anterior region of the ovary, how the branching pattern of the cystocyte cluster arises, or why only one of the two pro-oocytes becomes the oocyte.
- Meiosis occurs just before mating in well-differentiated oogonia and antheridia.
- The oogonia multiply by mitosis, but early in fetal life, they enter meiosis.
- In most crustaceans, the production of primary oocytes derived from oogonia continues throughout adult life.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from oo- 'of an egg' + Greek gonos 'generation' + -ium.