Question

What is the relationship between gametophyte and sporophyte in mosses? Ferns? Seed plants?

Answer 1

The relationship between the gametophyte and sporophyte varies among different groups of plants. Gametophyte is the dominant, which is recognizable stage of the life cycle and carries out most of the plant's photosynthesis process. The sporophyte is dependent on the gametophyte for supplying water and nutrients.

In mosses and hornworts, the sporophyte is less well developed than the gametophyte. It is largely dependent on it. Sporophytes of mosses can photosynthesise and need additional photosynthate from the gametophyte to sustain and spore development and depend on it for supply of water, mineral nutrients and nitrogen. In vascular plants the gametophyte is less well developed than the sporophyte. In ferns the gametophyte is a small flattened autotrophic prothallus on which the young sporophyte is dependent for its nutrition. In flowering or seed plants, the reduction of the gametophyte is much more severe and consists of few cells which develop completely inside the sporophyte.