noun
- Plural of hologamy; instances or types of sexual reproduction in which entire organisms fuse together to form a single zygote, particularly in certain protists and lower organisms.
Usage: biology; technical; rare
Examples
- In some species of algae, hologamies occur when two motile cells completely merge during reproduction.
- The study of hologamies in protozoans reveals unusual patterns of genetic recombination.
- Hologamies differ from typical sexual reproduction in that the entire cell bodies unite rather than just nuclei.