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How do plasmogamy and karyogamy differ in fungi?

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Study the different ways mushrooms release spores and watch mold hyphae spread across bread — Reproduction Fungi produce billions of spores that give rise to new generations of fungi.

In the context of fungal reproduction, plasmogamy and karyogamy are distinct, sequential stages of the sexual cycle.1

Plasmogamy

Plasmogamy is the fusion of the protoplasts, or the cellular contents, of two compatible haploid cells. This process brings two genetically distinct haploid nuclei into the same cell. In many fungi, particularly higher fungi, these nuclei do not fuse immediately, resulting in a dikaryotic state where the two nuclei coexist side by side within the same cell or hyphae.12

Karyogamy

Karyogamy is the subsequent fusion of these two haploid nuclei to form a single diploid nucleus. This fusion creates a zygote, which is typically the only diploid stage in the fungal life cycle. While karyogamy follows plasmogamy almost immediately in lower fungi, it is often separated from plasmogamy by a prolonged dikaryotic phase in more evolved fungi.12

Once karyogamy occurs, meiosis generally follows to restore the haploid state.21