Blastospores

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Reproductive fungal cells produced by budding from a parent cell; small, usually unicellular propagules that facilitate asexual reproduction in certain fungi; spores that arise by blastogenesis and help in dispersal and growth
2. Budding cells generated by fungi to reproduce asexually and spread; microscopic reproductive units formed through a process of development from a parent cell; single-celled spores that serve as agents for fungal proliferation and colonization
3. Asexual spores formed when new cells bud off from a fungal parent; tiny reproductive bodies enabling fungi to multiply without sexual fusion; propagules developed by a fungus through blastospore formation for dissemination and growth

Etymology: "Blastospores" is the plural of "blastospore," so it is built from the same two parts. The first, "blasto-," comes from the Greek "blastos," meaning sprout, bud or germ, and it appears in scientific coinages where a structure grows out of another. The second, "spore," comes from the Greek "spora," meaning seed or sowing, a word that English adopted for the reproductive units of plants, fungi and bacteria. Put together, the term describes a spore that is produced by budding rather than by the meeting of two mating cells. A fungal cell swells into a small outgrowth, which pinches off as a new, detachable body that can drift away and start a new colony. The name therefore carries its own explanation: a "sprout" that acts as a "seed."