what is the difference between an egg cell and a zygote?
Formation and Development of Zygotes. Gamete refers to a haploid sex cell that is a sperm in males and egg (oocyte) in females. Zygote is the diploid cell that results from the fertilization between an egg and a sperm. In mammals, the sperm (male gamete) fertilizes the egg (ovum, the female gamete) and the fertilized egg is called a zygote. The ovum, and therefore the zygote, is much larger than a normal cell.
Egg is the fertilised state of an ovum with the genetic materials of a male gamete. In fact, an egg could be defined as the organic vessel that facilitates the embryonic development for a zygote. For an ovum to become an egg, the transfer of the genetic material should have to take place.