33 QUE, BILL A.

1E-PH

Review Question for Chapter 20:
1. Some vascular plants produce seeds; others do not. Vascular plants that do not produce seeds are
known as vascular cryptogams, whereas vascular plants that do produce seeds are known as
spermatophytes. Are there any plants that produce seeds but which do not have vascular tissue?
No, there arent any plants that produce seeds but do not have vascular tissue. The major group of
plants that are seed plants including cycads, conifers, and angiosperms have vascular tissues.
2. What are some of the modifications necessary if an alga is to become evolutionary adapted to
living on land? Is a single modification sufficient, or are several necessary? The optimal survival
modifications if an alga was to become adapted to living on land include the formation of
dormant, drought-resistant spores, to conserve water and to avoid desiccation, to have a large
compact and multicellular body for a low surface-to-volume ratio to automatically retain water, a
water-proofing cuticle (with simultaneous evolution of stomatal pores and guard cells),
reproduction would have to had to change to coordinate gamete production with periods of
moisture because sperms have to swim and protection for both the spore and gamete mother cells
from dryness by having jacket of one or several layers of cells around them. A single modification
would not be enough, because there are many factors to consider on land for the survival of the
organism; several modifications are necessary.
3. Why would it be necessary for an evolutionary line to develop stomata and guard cells before it
developed an extremely impervious cuticle? Why must vascular tissues precede the evolution of
roots and active apical meristems? It is necessary for an evolutionary line to develop stomata and
guard cells before it developed an extremely impervious cuticle because a more protective cuticle
also prevents the entry of carbon dioxide, which is necessary for photosynthesis. Vascular tissue,
especially phloem, made feasible the evolution of truly heterotrophic tissues---roots, meristems
and organ primordial-----because phloem allows mobilization of sugars, mineral and hormones
throughout the entire body and their transfer to a shoot apical meristem or a group of sporangia,
thus permitting a more vigorous, robust growth of the plant.
4. The following organisms are often called mosses, but they are not actually closely related to
mosses at all. What groups of plants do they actually belong to?
a. Spanish moss: Tillandsia usneoides of the pineapple family
b. Club mosses: Lycophytes
c. Slimy, bright green mosses of ponds and slow-moving streams: Green algae, usually
Spirogyra
d. Reindeer moss: Lichens
5. What are the three groups of nonvascular plants? How would you determine whether an unknown
specimen is a vascular plant? The three groups of nonvascular plants include Bryophyta (mosses),
Hepaticophyta (liverworts), and Anthocerophyta (hornworts). An unknown specimen is a vascular
plant if vascular tissues, composed of the water conducting tissue xylem and the sugar-conducting
tissue phloem, are actually present in the specimen.
6. The nonvascular plants of this chapter are believed to be true plants, just as ferns, conifers, and
flowering plants are true plants; however, there are two tissues that the nonvascular plants do not
have. Which two tissues? Nonvascular plants do not have vascular tissues, which are mainly the
tissue xylem and phloem. Instead, some like mosses have hydroids that conduct water and
minerals and leptoids that resemble sieve cells.
7. If the leptoids of mosses were found to contain a protein whose gene had the same nucleotide
sequence as the gene that codes for P-protein, would that be significant evidence for either the
homology or analogy of leptoids and phloem? Homolgy is pertaining to traits shared by two
different organisms due to common ancestry while analogy is pertaining to similarity due to
convergent evolution and not common ancestry. The gene having the same nucleotide sequence as
the gene that codes for P-protein is a significant evidence for the homology of leptoids and phloem
because it shows that they share similarity in their genetic characteristic, an indication of common
ancestry.
8. You will see sporophytes only if you examine mosses closely. They look like green or brown
hairs standing up on the green gametophyte, but sporophytes are (present almost all the time or
only present at certain times of the year)
9. Do mosses have an alternation of isomorphic or heteromorphic generations? That is, can you
easily tell a moss gametophyte from a moss sporophyte? When we look at leafy green moss plants,
what are we seeing the gametophyte or the sporophyte? In a flowering plant species, would the
equivalent stage be the plant or the pollen grains and megagametophytes?

Their life cycle consists of an alternation of heteromorphic generations. You can easily tell a moss
gametophyte from a moss sporophyte because the gametophyte is the larger and more persistent
and photosynthetically active phase while the sporophyte depends almost entirely on the
gametophyte for carbon, energy, and minerals. When we look at a leafy green moss plant, what we
are seeing is the gametophyte. In a flowering plant species, it would be equivalent if it had two
generations- the sporophyte and the gametophyte which is equivalent to the pollen grains and the
megagametophytes.

10. The leafy, green moss plants that are so familiar are gametophytes, haploid plants. This is very
different from flowering plants and other seed plants. Does a leafy green moss plant grow from a
spore or from a fertilized egg? Does the moss plant have both a paternal parent and a maternal
parent?

The growth of the gametophyte (leafy green moss plant) begins when a spore germinates and
sends out a long, slender chlorophyllous cell. This cell undergoes mitosis and produces a branched
system of similar cells; the entire network is a protonema. Eventually, the nodules of small
cytoplasmic cells from on the protonema, organize an apical an apical cell, and then grows upright
as a stem with leaves-the gametophore which we see as the leafy green moss plant.
The moss plant has both a paternal parent and maternal parent since the moss came from the
fertilization of an egg cell that came from a maternal parent and a sperm cell that came from a
paternal parent.

11. Draw a single moss plant, similar to the one in Figure 20-10. Be certain to show the
gametophyte and sporophyte. Now draw one without the sporophyte, showing only the
gametophyte. The sporophytes usually have only a brief life, and after they shed their spores, the
gametophytes let them die.

12. Draw and label the life cycle of a moss; be certain to show the gametangia and sporotangia. Which
parts are haploid and which are diploid? Where and when does meiosis occur? Plasmogamy? Karyogamy?

The parts that are haploid include the spores, protonema, gametophyte; which are the antheridium and the
archegonium, and of course, the sperm and egg cells. The parts that are diploid include the zygote, the
embryo, the sprophyte, the sporangium, and the spore mother cell.
Meiosis occurs as the spore mother cell will become the spores. Both plasmogamy and karyogamy happens
during fertilization where there is a fusion of the cytoplasm and there is a fusion of the nuclei.
13. In the majority of mosses, which lack hydroids and leptoids, water is conducted along the exterior of
the plant by capillary action.


14. The leafy, green moss plants, being gametophytes, have gametangia, structures that produce gametes.
What is the name of the gametangium that produces sperm cells? The gametangium that produces egg
cells? Can one single moss gametophyte bear both of these? Do some species have plants that produce only
sperm cells? Other plants that produce only egg cells?
Antheridia is the gametangium that produces sperm cells, while Archegonia is the gametangium that
produces eggs. It is possible for one single moss to bear both of these. Antheridia and archegonia occur on
the same gametophore in bisexual species, whereas other species have both male and female gametophytes.

15. The sporophyte of a moss usually has a stalk called a seta and a simple apical sporangium is called
capsule.

16. Many people often think of mosses as plants adapted to the rainy areas, areas that are usually wet. Are
any mosses adapted to deserts? Can some mosses lose much of their water- the way a seed does before
being planted-and still survive?

Some mosses are tolerant of desiccation. Drying does not damage them as it does most vascular plants and
algae. Like lichens, many mosses can lose much of their water rather rapidly without dying or even being
injured. As long as about 30% of their weight is water, they remain dormant but alive. If rainfalls or dew
forms, water is a absorbed rapidly, and within a few minutes, respiration and photosynthesis are occurring
at normal levels. In deserts and dry rangelands, on the other hand, mosses may be turgid primarily during
winter.

17. The liverwort Marchantia is one of the largest and most common. There is a good chance that you will
find it if you search carefully in moist places (you may have to search many places). Is it a leafy liverwort
or a thallose one? Describe its surface texture. If you are very lucky, you may find it with
archaegoniosphores and antheridiosphores. What are these structures, and how would you recognize them
if you saw them (what do they look like)?

Liverworts are either leafy or thallose. Marchantia thallus shows differentiation into two layers: an upper
photosynthetic or assimilatory region and a lower storage region with a well defined upper epidermis with
air channels (barrel-shaped). It features tiny cup like structures called gemmae cups, which is used for
asexual reproduction. Marchantia is a thallose liverwort because it grows on moist soil in greenhouses.
Male gametophores produce an umbrella-shaped outgrowth called an antheridiophore. It has a stalk several
millimeters tall, and dozens of antheridia grow from its upper surface, each surrounded by a rim sterile
cells. Archaegoniosphores also are stalked, but their apex is a set of radiating fingers that project outward
and droop downward underside has numerous archaegonia. Recognition of these structures is not easy but
to know how they look and differentiate them from other structures will be a key to identifying them.

18. Unlike Marchantia, some liverworts are as a simple as a true plant can possibly get. Describe the body
of Sphaerocarpos texanus. If you were shown on of these plant, how would you be certain it is not an alga
(Hint: It would be almost impossible; there is only one way, not mentioned in the text. Algae tend to have
only one chloroplast per cell; true plantsincluding S. texanus --- always have many except, in the
hornworts)? The point of this question is to have you think about how little difference there is between
some algae and some true plants.

S. texanus are small, thalloid, dioecious liverworts. The species is sexually dimorphic, with male plants
usually 35 mm in diameter, females up to 12 mm in diameter. Both male (bearing antheridia) and female
(bearing archegonia) plants are bright green, with the thallus branching up to several times. The plant is a
winter annual, appearing in autumn and dying in spring. Notably, the spores occur in sets of four, called
tetrads. Unlike most other species of liverwort, the spores stay in these tetrads until they germinate. Algae
All of them are thallophytes as the plant body has no root , stem and the leaves. All of them are aquatic;
either fresh water or marine. All of them are autotrophic as they manufacture their own organic food with
the help of sun light and chlorophyll. The process of sexual reproduction is either isogamous and
anisogamous conjugation or oogamous fertilization. Liverworts, on the other hand, have lobed leaves, only
one cell thick. Leaves tend to grow in rows, have a leatherlike appearance and lack the midvein that
distinguishes mosses. Liverworts also lack roots, and the rhizoids that adhere them to surfaces consist of
only a single cell, not a long filament. Liverworts tend to synthesize volatile oils, which give them a spicy
aroma.

19. What are some of the ways in which a liverwort differs from mosses? How do hornworts differ from
both? Do the three have similar life cycles?

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 110 cm (0.44 in) tall, though some species are much
larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not
have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems. At certain times mosses produce
spore capsules, which may appear as beak-like capsules borne aloft on thin stalks.
Since mosses have no vascular system to carry water through the plant, they must have a damp
environment in which to live, and a surrounding of liquid water to reproduce. And since mosses are
photosynthetic, they require enough sun to conduct photosynthesis. Hornworts are a group of bryophytes,
or non-vascular plants, comprising the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the
elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte.
They named so because of their horn shaped sporophytes... Hornwort spores are relatively large for
bryophytes, measuring between 30 and 80 m in diameter or more. The spores are polar, usually with a
distinctive Y-shaped tri-radiate ridge on the proximal surface, and with a distal surface ornamented with
bumps or spines.
Unlike liverworts, most hornworts have true stomata on their sporophyte as mosses do. The exceptions are
the genera Notothylas and Megaceros, which do not have stomata.When the sporophyte is mature, it has a
multicellular outer layer, a central rod-like columella running up the center, and a layer of tissue in between
that produces spores and pseudo-elaters. The pseudo-elaters are multi-cellular, unlike the elaters of
liverworts. The plant body of a hornwort is a haploid gametophyte stage. This stage usually grows as a thin
rosette or ribbon-like thallus between one and five centimeters in diameter. Each cell of the thallus usually
contains just one chloroplast per cell. In most species, this chloroplast is fused with other organelles to form
a large pyrenoid that both manufactures and stores food. This particular feature is very unusual in land
plants, but is common among algae.

The Marchantiophyta are a division of bryophyte plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts.
Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only
a single set of genetic information. Liverworts consist of a prostrate, flattened, ribbon-like or branching
structure called a thallus (plant body); these liverworts are termed thallose liverworts. However, most
liverworts produce flattened stems with overlapping scales or leaves in two or more ranks, the middle rank
is often conspicuously different from the outer ranks; these are called leafy liverworts or scale liverworts.

Liverworts can most reliably be distinguished from the apparently similar mosses by their single-celled
rhizoids. Other differences are not universal for all mosses and all liverworts;but the lack of clearly
differentiated stem and leaves in thallose species, or in leafy species the presence of deeply lobed or
segmented leaves and the presence of leaves arranged in three ranks, all point to the plant being a
liverwort.In addition, 90% of liverworts contain oil bodies in at least some of their cells, and these cellular
structures are absent from most other bryophytes and from all vascular plants.
Another unusual feature of the liverwort life cycle is that sporophytes (i.e. the diploid body) are very short-
lived, withering away not long after releasing spores. Even in other bryophytes, the sporophyte is persistent
and disperses spores over an extended period.


20. What are the horns of hornworts? What do they produce? They have a meristem. Where is it?

Horns on hornworts are the equivalent of sporophytes. It is the sporangium, a horn-like cylinder, typically 1
or 2 cm. They produce spores. The basal meristem is active over a long period, depending on moisture
availability. The basal meristem is found on the sporophyte.

21. An important consideration in the evolution of any organism is gene flow. What are some of the
mechanisms by which genes move through the habitat in non vascular plants? In a dense, cool forest, how
strong are wind currents? Could they carry spores very far? What would you guess might be the maximum
distance sperms can swim? How far can a rain- drop splash a sperm or a spore?

Gene flow (also known as gene migration) is the transfer of alleles or genes from one population to another.
Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele frequencies (the
proportion of members carrying a particular variant of a gene). Immigration may also result in the addition
of new genetic variants to the established gene pool of a particular species or population.
There are a number of factors that affect the rate of gene flow between different populations. One of the
most significant factors is mobility, as greater mobility of an individual tends to give it greater migratory
potential. Animals tend to be more mobile than plants, although pollen and seeds may be carried great
distances by animals or wind. The air in the dense forests cannot carry spores far because there is moisture
suspended in the air that makes it impossible for air molecules to move freely. The splash of a raindrop can
transport spores farther than in the dense forests.