Gamete release has been frequently observed in laboratory cultures of various species of planktonic foraminifera. Those observations have been taken as evidence that these organisms produce new generations exclusively by sexual reproduction. We report here the first observation of asexual reproduction in Globigerinita uvula, a small, microperforate foraminifera. The asexual phase was associated with the release of ca. 110 offspring, all of which hosted symbiotic algae that must have been passed on directly from the parent. This event was also the first observation of vertical transmission of symbionts in planktonic foraminifera. Although the trigger of the observed asexual reproduction and its frequency in nature remain unknown, our observation indicates that among the planktonic foraminifera, at least G. uvula has not abandoned the asexual phase of its life cycle.

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浮游有孔虫无性繁殖与共生体传播的观察

在各种浮游有孔虫的实验室培养物中经常观察到配子的释放。这些观察已被证明是这些生物完全通过有性生殖而产生的新一代。我们在这里报告在无性繁殖的第一观察Globigerinita悬雍垂，小，microperforate有孔虫。无性期与释放钙有关。110个后代，所有这些后代都必须有共生藻类，而这些共生藻类必须直接从亲代传承下来。该事件也是浮游有孔虫中共生体垂直传播的首次观察。尽管观察到的无性繁殖的触发因素及其在自然界中的发生频率仍是未知的，但我们的观察表明，在浮游有孔虫中，至少G. uvula尚未放弃其生命周期的无性阶段。