Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Pollen tube elongation is an integral stage in the plant life cycle. The pollen tube acts as a conduit to transport the male gamete cells from the pollen grain—either from the stigma (in flowering plants) to the ovules at the base of the pistil or directly through ovule tissue in some gymnosperms.
Pollen tube diagram. Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. [1] It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells).
The best studied mechanisms of SI act by inhibiting the germination of pollen on stigmas, or the elongation of the pollen tube in the styles. These mechanisms are based on protein-protein interactions, and the best-understood mechanisms are controlled by a single locus termed S, which has many different alleles in the species population.
If the pollen is compatible it will germinate and begin to grow. [5] The ovary releases chemicals that stimulates a positive chemotropic response from the developing pollen tube. [6] In response the tube develops a defined tip growth area that promotes directional growth and elongation of the pollen tube due to a calcium gradient. [5]
Since most plants carry both male and female reproductive organs in their flowers, there is a high risk of self-pollination and thus inbreeding. Some plants use the control of pollen germination as a way to prevent this self-pollination. Germination and growth of the pollen tube involve molecular signaling between stigma and pollen.
The pollen grains, which are the male gametophytes, are reduced to only a few cells (just three cells in many cases). Here the notion of two generations is less obvious; as Bateman & Dimichele say "sporophyte and gametophyte effectively function as a single organism". [8] The alternative term 'alternation of phases' may then be more appropriate ...
Epilobium pollen has three apertures that are pores The aperture of Lilium pollen is a single sulcus. Apertures are areas on the walls of a pollen grain, where the wall is thinner and/or softer. For germination it is necessary that the pollen tube can reach out from the inside of the pollen grain and transport the sperm to the egg deep down in ...
Placental areas occur in various positions, corresponding to various parts of the carpels that make up the ovary. See Ovule#Location within the plant. An obturator is present in the ovary of some plants, near the micropyle of each ovule. It is an outgrowth of the placenta, important in nourishing and guiding pollen tubes to the micropyle. [17]