Spore discharge in Cordana musae (Zimm.) Höhnel and Zygosporium oscheoides Mont.

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Abstract
In Cordana musae and Zygosporium oscheovides violent spore discharge occurs under conditions of rapidly decreasing vapour-pressure; discharge is not dependent on light. Mechanisms of discharge are postulated. In C. musae, on drying, water evaporates from inside the conidium and conidiophore, causing a negative pressure to develop in the solutions inside these structures and the walls to be drawn inwards under tension. The sudden appearance of a gas bubble in one or both of these structures releases the tension, and the resultant jolt causes the conidium to be shot away. In Z. oscheoides similar tension and wall distortion develop in a specialized conidiophore cell, the vesicle, on which the conidia are poised. On appearance of a gas phase, the vesicle wall springs back to its original form and the conidia are shot away. The vesicle is likened to a single annulus cell in the fern sporangium. The similarity between discharge in C. musae, Z. oscheoides, and Deightoniella torulosa is briefly discussed.

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