Reproduction
Detail of spores in a mature worm. Light micrograph (Photo: A. Gruhl).
Reproduction in Buddenbrockia plumatellae is poorly understood.
Sexual organs as well as egg and sperm cells are lacking. Instead propagative spores consisting of ~10 cells are produced. The spores are formed by the cells of the internal tissue layer of the worm. Meiosis occurs in cells from which spores are derived. The spores contain amoeboid ‘sporoplasms’ which infect to the next host (McGurk et al. 2006; Morris and Adams 2007; Canning et al. 2008).