Anantheridium is ahaploid structure or organ producing and containing malegametes (calledantherozoids orsperm). The plural form isantheridia, and a structure containing one or more antheridia is called anandroecium.[1] The androecium is also the collective term for thestamens offlowering plants.
Antheridia are present in thegametophyte phase ofcryptogams likebryophytes andferns.[2] Manyalgae and somefungi, for example,ascomycetes andwater moulds, also have antheridia during theirreproductive stages. Ingymnosperms andangiosperms, the male gametophytes have been reduced topollen grains, and in most of these, the antheridia have been reduced to a singlegenerative cell within the pollen grain. Duringpollination, this generative cell divides and gives rise to sperm cells.
The female counterpart to the antheridium in cryptogams is thearchegonium, and in flowering plants is thegynoecium.
An antheridium typically consists of sterilecells and spermatogenoustissue. The sterile cells may form a central support structure or surround the spermatogenous tissue as a protective jacket. The spermatogenous cells give rise tospermatids via mitoticcell division. In somebryophytes, the antheridium is borne on anantheridiophore, a stalk-like structure that carries the antheridium at its apex.[3]
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